The Choices We Make
by Draegyn
Summary: In the war against Chaos, a leader among Senshi must make the decision between life and death, hope or despair. violence and sexual references inside
1. 1 of 8

Hullo all, here's a new one but for those that might be concerned about the Law Keeper don't worry.  I'm not gonna drop it.  It's all finished and will be posted ASAP.  In the meanwhile this is a new one that needed much help from many, many peoples to make it anywhere near readable.  Bej, Carla and Raq THANK YOU.

I don't really need to tell you that I don't own Sailor Moon do I?  I do?  Oh… well I don't, happy?

Synopsis:  In the war against Chaos, a leader among Senshi must make the decision between life and death, hope or despair.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

The Decisions We Make

Part one

By Draegyn

Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au

_A single choice can make all the difference in the universe.  Many souls admit this as truth and yet they do no comprehend the magnitude of the truth involved.  The decisions they would cite as examples are such world shattering choices as 'should we drop this large bomb on __Hiroshima__?' or 'to kill Caesar or not to kill Caesar?'_

_Forgive me if I sound flippant, perhaps I, too, have been affected by modern culture on Earth.  The time my Senshi have spent there, mingled amongst humans, exposed each of them to great extent and they, in turn, have passed it to me.  Yet if I do no mock such serious issues then surely I shall cry.  For, you see, the example I would provide is simply that of a maid deciding to enquire if her mistress required assistance._

_Perhaps it is better if I commence from the beginning.  I am known by many names and in many roles but to my people I am Serenity.  Queen Serenity.  I do not believe it presumptuous of me to claim that my rule is a good and prosperous one.  It has, after all, come to be known as the Silver Millennium, though my reign has been near twice that.  My hand is light and none of mine toil on the borderline of poverty.  The __Moon__Kingdom__ is a rich one in spite of past troubles._

The ruins of the original palace have long since become indistinguishable from the crater scarred surface of our moon and the subterranean cities have matured into a new splendour.  The inhabitants of the palace are quiet and industrious, such are the defining characteristics of my people.  Never would these proud people of mine pressure me into an action that I might not wish.  In truth that very lack is a greater goad than any they might attempt to employ consciously as with the tale I shall now share.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The small black cat padded down the marble halls, bemusement plain in her eyes.

"For such a silent race, the Lunarians have remarkable lungs do they not Luna?" her white companion joked.

"The birth of a princess is reason enough to celebrate for any race, let alone a people with as low a birth race as the Lunarians possess," Luna rebuked yet her expression revealed her agreement even if her words did not.  She then joined Artemis in wincing as another loud chorus of cheers echoed throughout the palace.

It was with a sigh of relief that both feline advisors slipped into the royal apartments and closed the soundproofed doors behind them.  The clamour of joyful exuberance was cut off and replaced by a soft melody.  Following the ethereal tune led the pair into a magnificent chamber looking out over the Sea of Serenity.  Situated in the centre of the room was an elegant woman hovering over an elaborately carved cradle.  From the woman's hands a golden star hung suspended from a delicate golden chain and it was from this that the music originated.  A sweet gurgle melded with the music and a small, chubby hand reached from the crib to grab at the dangling star.

"A precocious darling is she not?"  The woman asked proudly, startling her visitors.  They had believed their queen too engrossed in her child to notice their arrival and the amusement that danced in the monarch's silver eyes showed that she knew this.  They shook off their surprise quickly and leapt to the edge of the crib to examine their new charge.

Already it was obvious that she would possess her mother's beauty.  The down on her head was already gold.  Undoubtedly it would fade to silver much the way the lavender tresses of her mother had done but it was another feature set in the tiny heart shaped face that caught the eye.  Two living sapphires watched them sleepily, giving both cats pause.  Something in those limpid gems spoke of power and mystery and once more they puzzled at the enigma that surrounded her conception.  Blue eyes and green darted to their queen's yet no answers were forthcoming about the child's unknown father.

"You needed to speak to me?"  Like in months past Serenity drew their attention away from secrets she had no intention of revealing with a few well-chosen words.

Artemis recalled himself and nodded.  With a brief glance at Luna dropped the bombshell that had necessitated their intrusion.  "A company of Greater Senshi have arrived."

Silver eyes widened in shock for a split second before the queen recovered her lost composure.  Immediately she stood and strode to where a silver bell-pull hung near the door.  Bare moments after she pulled it an elderly servant arrived.

"Your Majesty?"  The servant did not prostrate herself yet she communicated in no uncertain terms that she would have snatched at the opportunity to do more for the royal family if only the queen would allow her.  

Serenity smiled slightly, aware that it was only her expressed desire for privacy that prevented her from being overrun with eager pages and handmaidens.  Still they honoured her wishes and only appeared when called.  Like Serenity the cats knew this and were amused by it.

"Duty calls Riath," the queen's disciplined tones explained calmly, showing no hint of her thoughts.  "Watch over my daughter while I am away."

Instantly the maid's face lit up and only age and iron self-control contained her enthusiasm for the appointed task.  The woman adopted a motherly demeanour and began to herd the queen to the door.

"Of course I will.  Now off you go Your Majesty and leave Her Highness to me.  Shoo!  Shoo!"

Artemis and Luna hastened after her and seconds later regarded the closed door behind them ruefully.

"I wonder if you should be jealous my Queen," Artemis mused aloud as he began to lead her through the labyrinth palace.

Serenity laughed.  "Of who?  My daughter for Riath's affection?  Or Riath for her time with my child?"

"I would think the second," Luna inserted, "Riath would mother you equally if given permission."

"True…" The silver haired woman's smile melted away.  "Have our guests given any indication of why they have come?"

Equally as quickly the levity faded from the cats.  The white shook his head as the black answered.

"I fear not Your Majesty.  Their only words were a request for an audience with you.  They gave neither reason nor explanation for their presence."

"I doubt it is good though," Artemis interjected, "None of the Greater Senshi have made themselves known to us since the girl who would have been Sailor Sol failed to realise her destiny as one of their number."

Luna's eyes widened.  "Perhaps another representative for our Sun has been born and the Greater Senshi have come to welcome their new sister.  Naught else in this region of the galaxy would draw their notice aside from the emergence of a new Senshi."

"They did not come when Pluto was sworn in not two years past," Artemis argued.

"Sailor Pluto is powerful, as befits the Guardian of Time, it is true." Luna replied, "Yet she is not of the Greater Kindred, they are the mortal incarnations of stars at the very least.  A planet, even one as steeped in magic as Pluto, does not merit one of the Celestial Warriors.  You said it yourself Artemis, Pluto was sworn in, she was chosen by mortals and bequeathed the power of a Celestial _Soldier_.  She was not born to it as her Warrior sisters are."

"I am aware of that Luna!" Artemis retorted sharply, stung by the implication that he was less learned than she about the workings of the Senshi.  His next words addressed the queen directly.  "Is it possible that the original candidate for Sailor Sol has passed from this life and that a new potential was born?"

Through Luna's diatribe Serenity had remained silent but at Artemis' gentle questioning she dismissed the abstraction that had absorbed her and replied softly, "No my friend.  She who could have been our Sun's representative still lives.  The Greater Kindred have not come to greet Sailor Sol."

Both cats paused in the hallway to regard their monarch but she did not wait for them and they were left to once more hurry in her wake as she entered the room in which the greatest warriors of the universe awaited her pleasure.

At her entry the five Senshi stood and gave, not the genuflection of a visiting Senshi to the regional ruler, but the salute of Senshi to an equal.  Such a gesture was only ever bequeathed to their fellow Senshi.  Luna and Artemis were shaken by realisation.  Their queen ignored their plight and with a thought the door closed behind them.  What would be said in that room would be said in private.

The five Senshi straightened and examined the queen critically.  Two of the Senshi were garbed in black fighting leathers, the gold stars in their circlets proclaiming them to be Starlight Senshi.  One had hair the colour of peaches while the other's was of crimson red and both were pulled back into lengthy ponytails.  The next two wore a uniform that would be mistaken as a simple slip by the unknowing.  The freedom of movement that the wisps of fabric allowed would be overlooked in favour of their revealing nature, their delicate seeming armbands gave no evidence that they served admirably as guards and the dozens of miniature Suns that were strung in their hair revealed none of the lethality they possessed when wielded like the tiny shirikin that they were. They, like the absent Sailor Sol, were Senshi for stars.  

The fifth and final woman was also the youngest but also arguably the most powerful Senshi ever born.  To any eye trained in war the blonde's garb, even with a passable attempt at disguise, was undeniably armour.  To those trained they would see that the bodice of the short golden dress was a hidden breast plate, that the fabric of the dress itself was constructed from the finest chain mail in existence, that the tall boots included shin guards and the gloves served as wrist bracers.  She was Sailor Galaxia, still not long from her training but formidable despite that.

The Starlight with the pastel hair stepped forward and broke the frozen tableau that had formed.  With her arms outstretched, she stepped forward and enfolded the queen's pale hands within her own.  "Greetings Sister," her voice, though quiet, filled the room.  "It has been long and long again since our last meeting."

Luna and Artemis regarded Serenity in awe.  Had they possessed any doubt concerning their own suspicions those words would have dispelled them.

Serenity nodded wistfully.  "Aye Starseeker…  Sister.  That it has.  And will you introduce your companions to myself and my advisors?"

Hesitation showed for a moment in the Senshi's dark eyes and then it was gone and she nodded as if she had never intended otherwise.  One of Starseeker's hands released the queen yet the other maintained a firm grip.  To those watching it almost seemed as if the Starlight were afraid that the Moon Queen would vanish had she the chance, a blatantly impossible occurrence given that not even a queen as powerful as Serenity could dare obstruct a Greater Senshi in pursuit of her duties.

The free hand motioned towards the youngest Warrior.  "First is Galaxia, whom you have no doubt deduced already."  The young blonde nodded silently and Artemis and Luna bowed as deeply as their forms allowed.  "These two," The hand waved at the Stellar Senshi.  "Would be called Sailors Deneb and Altair by your people.  And finally is my partner, Sailor Starteacher."  The redhead bowed, acknowledging the cats' bows, but her eyes were on the queen and so she was able to notice the flash of dread that flickered across Serenity's regal features.

"You are all welcome within my realm," the queen murmured graciously but her composure was fragile at best.

"Our thanks for you welcome Serenity," Galaxia stated, "But we cannot tarry overlong."

"Which brings us to the purpose of your visit," Serenity responded and attempted to pull away from Starseeker.

The Starlight frowned in vexation and refused to let go.  "Serenity, why?   You know very well what has drawn us here and even if you did not you now enough of my powers to be aware of what would summon me.  Our presence can only be cause by one thing, why do you deny it?  Sister please!"

The queen refused to yield and the Senshi sighed.  She released Serenity, drew herself straight and announced grimly, "As you wish Serenity.  On behalf of the Greater Kindred we have come to lay claim to one of our own."

Serenity's jaw clenched but she did not say a word.

"Why are you making this so hard Sister?" Deneb burst out.

For a long moment Artemis and Luna thought their queen would respond to this outburst in kind.  Never before had they seen her in such a state.  Until that day she had always been the image of calm, every inch deserving of her name, and that peace had extended within but now her calm exterior belied the tangle of emotions that seethed under her skin.  A thousand tiny gestures, the tiny crease between her eyebrows, the slight narrowing of her lips, the way her silver eyes were overbright, they each revealed her tension to those who knew her.

No explosion came though, only a steady voice that announced, "Your claim is denied."

Starteacher looked outraged.  "By what right do you–"  

"Teacher!  Be silent!" Starseeker snapped with a glare at the admonished Starlight.  When the other capitulated she turned back to the woman she had repeatedly named sister.  "We await your explanation Your Majesty."

Serenity visibly flinched as her title passed from the Senshi's lips but she did not back down.  Meeting Starseeker's eyes squarely, she replied carefully,  "Three hundred years ago you came and petitioned my predecessor for exactly the same thing that you now ask of me and, like my predecessor, I find that I am unable to give it."

"Unable or unwilling?" Starteacher commented sarcastically and subsided when all of her fellow Senshi glared at her.

"The same reasons that applied then also stand now," the queen continued.

Starseeker nodded and sighed.  "Aye Sister, those reasons were sufficient… _then_!  But this is now and the situation differs greatly."  Serenity started to protest but Starseeker forestalled her with a glance.  "No, hear me out."  She waited for the queen to agree and then launched into her own explanation.

"When I came previously the universe was at peace and there looked to be no change on the horizon.  That is not so now.  War is brewing.  An enemy such has never before been seen has come, and all that stands before it is us, the Greater Senshi.  This enemy is more powerful than anyone one of us, including even Galaxia, and maybe not even our combined strengths will be enough to oppose it.  We cannot afford to lose a Warrior who, by every indication, promises to be one of the greatest ever born."

Galaxia stepped forward and spoke earnestly, "Even now she calls to me, _me_!  From thousands of light-years distant she called to me and I had no choice but to come.  Another might not be missed in the coming battles but such a one as this cannot not be forgotten."

"I am sorry Sister but it is the truth."  Starseeker's eyes showed her regret yet her mouth was determined.  "Three centuries ago we could afford to lose you to your people and perhaps you have accomplished more on their behalf as queen than you would have as Senshi.  The same cannot be said for your daughter.  She is needed Serenity, horribly, terribly, desperately needed.  She is greater than her mother and will be more than Sailor Sol could ever be.  I do not belittle Stellar Senshi when I say that no mere Sailor Sol is she!  I can feel it my bones that she, perhaps even more than Galaxia, will be pivotal in the struggle that grows near and we cannot surrender such advantage as your daughter will no doubt prove to be."

"Even you must obey the law Milady Senshi," Luna spoke from her forgotten position.  Six women turned to stare at her, each with the power to move Suns, though one denied it, and the black cat quailed.  Yet Artemis remained staunchly by her side and so she continued bravely.  "The Greater Senshi cannot rule and should a girl be born to both the burden of the crown and the duties of the Greater Senshi then her destiny as Senshi may be put aside in that lifetime if there be no other heirs to bear the crown."  She paused significantly before continuing heavily, "To rule the Moon Kingdom a monarch must be able to command the power of the Ginzuishou, the Imperium Silver Crystal.  In all our recorded history only those of Queen Serenity's blood have been able to do this and Her Majesty and the princess are the soul scions of that bloodline.  There are no other heirs so, if Her Majesty should will it, bonds of blood take precedence over bonds of destiny."

"We are aware of this Lady but that will not stop us from beseeching the queen to decide in out favour," Starseeker acknowledged.

Serenity's face was grim.  "The life of a princess is harsh yet nowhere near that of yours. You ask that I condemn my daughter to a life of battles and war?  What kind of mother would I be to agree to that?"

"What kind of queen would you be to deny your people their possible salvation?" Starteacher replied harshly. 

"Please Sister, we need her."

"I…"

"Think on it.  Her naming ceremony is tomorrow, yes?"  Starseeker paused only long enough for Artemis to confirm it with a nod.  "You can inform us of your decision then.  We will trust in your wisdom and abide by your choice."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serenity paused with her hand on the door and watched as Riath sang to the infant in the cradle.  The older woman started glanced up and blinked at the presence of the queen.  Serenity smiled sadly and entered the room.

"Thank you for watching over her Riath.  Now go to bed, it is quite late."

The servant nodded and quietly made her way to the door.  Serenity turned her attention to her child.  She picked up the star shaped locket from where it rested near the infant's head and opened it.  Once more it started to play its haunting melody.

After a moment Serenity was startled to realise that she had tears running down her cheeks.  The thought of losing this infant was unbearable.  Serenity would never again see her lover or know the security of his embrace and this miracle that they had created between them was doubly precious because of it.  Yet, for the sake of the sisters she should have been with, she forced herself to consider the matter.

If she agreed then it would be unlikely that she would ever see her daughter again or at least not before she was full-grown.  Serenity would not be her mother, merely a queen and a failed Senshi but her daughter would fulfil her vast potential.  That potential might still be realised if she was not trained with the Greater Senshi so it was not a deciding argument.  Nor was the power she could wield as a Senshi.  Even Galaxia would be hard pressed to match the strength of the Imperium Silver Crystal.  When all was said and done it came down to whether or not Serenity could let her child go and the answer to that was simple: no.

"Your Majesty?" Serenity's head jerked up and her startled eyes met Riath's.  "Are you well Your Majesty?"

"Yes," Serenity assured her quickly, "I was just thinking about tomorrow."  The naming ceremony was more than reason enough for a queen to be distracted about in normal circumstances.

Riath nodded and then hesitated.  "If you should need anything…"

"I will not hesitate to call."

The woman nodded and departed, closing the door firmly behind her.  Serenity watched this with mixed emotions.  She had not realised that the other woman had not left and so had seen her unseemly tears.  Still it was unheard of for any servant to intrude on their queen's privacy.  It must have been extremely hard for Riath to go against custom and speak up as she had.  A rush of pride and affection for her subjects filled the queen followed quickly by realisation.  

It was a very simple understanding yet at the same time it was also a profound epiphany.  She knew what to do.  It might not have been what Starseeker considered the right thing but in Serenity's heart she knew there was no real choice, there was only the right thing for her people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Lunarian people came from far and wide to gather at a marble pillar set above the capital as Sun began its steady rise in the sky that day.  That the Earth too would watch over them as their queen publicly presented her heir was widely acclaimed to be a good omen.  Perhaps, the people whispered, perhaps the schism between the Moon and the Earth would soon be mended.

Yet such considerations were forgotten and a hush fell upon the crowd as the marble substance of the Prayer Pillar began to glow.  The shadows that surrounded it and concealed it faded away to reveal a circle of Senshi.  This the people of the Moon Kingdom did not expect for, although no less than eight Celestial Soldiers were to be a part of their queen's court only Sailor Pluto was yet old enough to take her place in the circle.  No, five of the six Senshi that stood there did not belong and yet none present would gainsay the right of the Greater Kindred to go where she pleased.  The five unknown could be no less than the Celestial Warriors that rumour declared had come to claim a boon from the queen.

Shock faded but before voices could be raised in question the pillar's light flared brilliantly and blinded all present.  When the glare faded moments later and vision began to return three new figures stood before the Prayer Pillar and the circle of Senshi moved and reformed into a guard three-strong either side of the newcomers.  This was closer to what the people had expected.  Before them stood Queen Serenity, her royal staff of office in hand with the Imperium Silver Crystal at its tip, with the royal advisors Luna and Artemis in their human form at her sides.  

Artemis bore a sword made of the same crystal as the Ginzuishou.  The people nodded in approval at the site for that sword would be sworn to the defence of the infant princess and in time the Senshi that the white haired man-cat personally prepared would wield it.  It was Luna's burden that drew more interest though for in her arms was the princess herself swaddled in wraps of the softest wool.

The queen drew herself to her full height and sharply tapped the rock at her feet with her staff three times.  As the echoes of the third tap faded her voice reached forth to be heard by all present, no matter how distant they were from the pillar itself.

"On this day, the thirty-fourth of the two hundred and ninety-second year of my reign, I present to you my daughter!"

With that Serenity released her staff and the magical rod stood on its own.  With quick, graceful movements she retrieved her daughter from Luna's protective embrace.  The blankets fell away and her mother held the princess before her people.  One gentle hand lifted the small body while the other supported a head upon whose brow burned a crescent mark with a brilliance to rival the rising Sun's.  The people forgot decorum and, if Artemis had believed them loud the previous two days, he learned the true meaning of the word in the cheer that sounded.  And the princess?  Deprived of her warm blankets, exposed to the cool morning air, thrust before thousands of strangers and bombarded with a roar that shook the heavens… The infant princess laughed and her musical gurgle rose above the bedlam to spur the uproar on to new heights.

Nearly all rather for five souls faltered at the display and despaired.  The Greater Senshi silently endured disappointment and braced themselves to acknowledge their defeat to Serenity.  After provoking such a reaction from her subjects surely Serenity had no intention of relinquishing her child to them.  Yet something in the queen's bearing alerted Sailor Starseeker and she preserved a glimmer of hope.  She alone of her companions had known Serenity of old and she alone could perceive the silver haired woman's tension.  The babe had not yet been named and the queen would not declare her choice until then.

Time passed and finally the clamour began to die away and expectation once more arose.  The Sun fully cleared the horizon and all held their breath.  Quiet reigned; even a pin drop could have been heard in that absolute silence as the Lunarians waited for their queen to announce her daughter's name.

"I give you…"

At this Starseeker's last hope faded.  With those words the queen had promised her daughter's destiny to her subjects.

"Serenity…"

The people once more roared with approval and the queen's next words were almost lost.

"Of the Greater Kindred!"

Almost instantly the cheers faltered and the Greater Senshi themselves were bewildered.  Their wish had been granted and yet the child had not been released from her responsibilities to the Lunarians.  Celestial Warrior and Queen, Serenity the younger could not be both and every soul present knew it.

Silence once more dominated and the elder Serenity's voice once more reached out.  Her tone was cool with underlying steel that extinguished her people's rebellion before it even began.  "She will not be queen."

At these words Artemis came forth and proffered the crystal sword to the queen.  Like Luna, his face was expressionless and the Senshi knew then that they were aware of what the queen intended.  His stood perfectly still and the queen nodded to him before she once more addressed the assemblage.

"This sword was created to be wielded by a Celestial Soldier in my daughter's defence but this can no longer be.  Yet the hand that draws it will still be of the Lesser Senshi for on this day the position of Sailor Moon is brought into being and she who will bear the sword will be sworn into office."

Exclamations of shock could be heard and so the quiet gasp that the young Sailor Pluto made as the consequences of the day unfolded to her was overlooked.

"Her duty will be to this Moon, to you my people and to the crystal that guards us.  In accordance with that duty I will set one task to the new Senshi: she must find and present to the Ginzuishou its next keeper."  Gently Serenity shifted her daughter in her arms until she had one hand free to place the princess' little hand upon the blade.  "With a mother's right I bind my daughter to the destiny of Senshi.  Henceforth this sword is hers to command.  Let all know that Princess Serenity has taken up the duties and responsibilities of Sailor Moon."  

A single tear ran down the queen's cheek as she pressed the princess' hand to the sharp edge of the blade.  Blood flowed and then dissolved in a shower of sparks.  Only Artemis was close enough to see the crescent shaped, silver scar that was left on the infant's hand as he drew the sword away.

Shock paralysed the Greater Senshi as the princess was doubly condemned to the life of a Senshi but the Lunarians accepted it with grim approval.  The cheer and joy of the previous days had vanished, gone as if they had never been, but in their place remained pride.  Pride in their queen for her ability to provide for them even as she suffered the loss of her daughter but even greater pride for their new princess.  How many kingdoms such as theirs boasted a princess that was a Senshi twice over?  Still that double destiny would take her from them for the Greater Kindred could not afford to remain in such an isolated region.

As these thoughts occurred to all present Artemis had moved away from the queen.  Moving beyond the Senshi he stepped up to the pillar and without a sound drove the sword deeply into the base of the pillar.  When he straightened again, over half of the four-foot blade was sheathed in marble.  He turned to face his fellows and revealed the embedded sword to all.  With a severe face he began to speak.

"Not one of us present does not know what it means that our princess, our hope for the future, is one of the Greater Kindred.  She will leave with her sisters to attend to the tasks that the universe has charged her yet she will return and so shall her blade remain here as a promise of that day.  It shall be a reminder of that promise and the promise that the princess herself represents.  It shall be a monument to the sacrifice that she and her mother have made not only for us but for the universe!

"Let no hand but Sailor Moon's draw it.  Let the edge of the blade be death to those who attempt to do so unlawfully.

"Here shall the crystal blade remain until the time for Sailor Moon to walk the realm has come."

"Serenity!"

"SERENITY!"

"_SERENITY!_"

Once more the crowd roared but this was no ecstatic cheer, it was an exultant proclamation.  The visiting Senshi could not determine whether the cry was for princess or queen.  One or both it did not matter, what did was that the Moon Kingdom had given them a champion to stand at their sides in the dark days ahead.

As a hundred thousand people chanted her name the queen turned to the Senshi.  The five visitors moved forward while Pluto watched them with sharp eyes.  Starseeker stepped before the queen and knelt.  Pausing only long enough to kiss her child's brow for the last time, Serenity handed the babe to the waiting Senshi.

Luna retrieved the royal staff from where it stood unaided and presented it to the queen.  With a gesture the Ginzuishou floated from its place at the tip and into Serenity's waiting palm and she moved so that her people could see both her and the Senshi.  

In a voice that cracked with heartbreak but persisted with determination she declared to her subjects, "On this day I free her from the title of Heir and remove her from the succession.  Not she but another will follow me yet I do not take her from you.  My heir she is not but your princess she will always be…"

The crystal flared and the crescent on the infant's forehead faded to be replaced with another.  Once more Starseeker was stunned and her gaze met the queen's incredulously.  Silver eyes displayed surprise but no disbelief.  None bar the queen, the Starlight and the two advisors could see the new marking that revealed the new Senshi's identity and Starseeker could feel her sisters' impatience behind her.  Haltingly she turned to show them what she saw and could barely believe but Pluto did not wait to confirm what her familiarity with the future had already informed her of.  

Instead she stepped for and bowed to the queen.  "My queen for relinquishing such a treasure to us the Senshi, Greater and Lesser, will eternally be in your debt."  The queen acknowledged the young Senshi's words and Pluto turned to face the Lunarians.  In a ringing voice she proclaimed, "On behalf of the Senshi I, as Sailor Pluto, hereby announce the emergence of Sailor Cosmos!"

Serenity turned as her people's shock transmuted into a stunned rumble of noise.  Her eyes were caught by Starseeker's.  'Did you know?' those dark orbs asked.

'With such a sire as she has I would have been surprised at anything less,' she let her own reply.

Galaxia looked up and followed Starseeker's gaze.  She closed her eyes for a moment and when they opened again they swam with tears.  "Thank you," she whispered.  The existence of Cosmos was a gift of a scale that even Galaxia, maybe especially Galaxia, would never be able to repay.

One by one the other three tore their attention from their new sister and expressed their own gratitude.  Then, between one breath and the next, they were gone.  

The Lunarians dispersed both awed and saddened.  Artemis contemplated the future with concern and Luna worried for the queen.  And, deprived of daughter and lover, Serenity returned to her apartments alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thus a queen who was unable to bear more children gave her only heir to a life hardly conductive towards producing offspring.  On that day I virtually doomed the crown of the Moon Kingdom to die barren with myself and I did so because of a single, almost unnoticeable event.  When Riath defied custom and convention, risking my ire – though I would never punish a soul for showing concern she was not certain of that – to offer me aid it was not done as a servant.  

It was done as mother, as a fellow woman and as a friend.  Knowing that, knowing that there were million more with souls as great as Riath's in the universe and knowing the potential my lover had bequeathed my daughter how could I deny my sisters my precious Serenity's aid?

I could not.

Yet I was also queen and I needed to consider my people and my kingdom's needs so I laid upon my daughter a second burden of destiny.  I of all people knew of the difficulties of a dual destiny and I still cursed her with such a fate and, unlike myself, she could never put one destiny aside.

I am proud of how she came to cope with the lot I and life gave her.  In the millennia since her birth she has shone with a brilliance that will never be surpassed.  From Pluto I know that my choice… Riath's choice, or so I believe, saved billions of lives and in fact preserved our own kingdom so why should I regret that day?

I willingly gave my daughter away.  Why should I not regret that day?


	2. 2 of 8

Wow, it seems people like this one.  Sorry the princess is still absent in this part but she will turn up in the next.  Feel free to put critiques in as reviews – both good and bad things.  I want to get better and I can't do that without feedback.  Thanks.

Draegyn

The Choices We Make – part 2

By Draegyn

Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each choice we make bears consequences.  My decision to send my daughter with the Greater Senshi had consequences that were both far reaching and near.  The difficulties between Earth and the Moon were never healed but Pluto told me that they were not fated to in my lifetime in any case.  No, the true difference that my choice made was in a single Terran soul from which unknowingly I had stolen hope.

_Endymion, he who was Earth's crown prince, his was a hard life.  He endured much for his people.  He weathered the crushing burden of the crown from a heartbreakingly young age.  He suffered through the treacherous politics of his world only to be forced to tolerate the fickle attentions of shallow and ambitious station-climbers.  He was denied the comfort of friendship because even his guardians were forced to uphold his station.  And then I denied him love, for my daughter would have given him that.  Freely and unstintingly, she would have loved him and he would have loved her and together they would have begun something that the universe would have treasured._

_But I sent her away.  So Endymion grew in loneliness.  While my precious daughter fought in the Senshi Wars that had begun in the unthinkably distant recesses of space Endymion grew jaded and bitter.  While my beautiful Serenity triumphed against the enemy forces only to have the true enemy flee her power Endymion lost the battle against the darkness in his soul._

_Learning that should have been forgotten became his.  Knowledge that had been held secret was revealed to his seeking mind.  Skills that should never have been formed, he mastered.  He was not Senshi.  In a way, he was more.  And he looked to my people's Moon for something he did not know he was searching for._

_Thus came the Reckoning._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sailor Mars sent a sheet of flame out at the Terran soldiers and their cries of agony almost made her flinch.  Almost.  Too much had happened for them to draw even a shred of pity from her any longer.  She was no longer the naïve adolescent she had been when she had first met those of Earth.  No, now she was a fully mature Senshi with decades of experience behind her in which she had prepared with her sisters for the war they now fought.  Had Earth attacked the Moon Kingdom while she was still that feckless child then she had no doubt that she would have died long since.  But they had not and she had not and so the Western Armies of Earth faced the Senshi of fire in her full strength.

Her previous attack had cleared a space around her and, as prearranged, the Lunarian forces began an orderly retreat… leaving her to hold the field on her own.  As she wanted.  

She sighed quietly in some far corner of her mind.  She had lied when she said that pity for the Terrans was beyond her.  For what she was about to do to them she could not help but pity them.  If only…  what?  If only they had not attacked?  If only their prince and his generals had not gone over to the Dark Kingdom?  If only Endymion weren't such an unimaginable bastard?  If only the princess had been here to love him as Pluto seemed to believe that she would have?  If only the universe were perfect… but it was not and so the Senshi would defend.

The ranks of Terrans began to reorganise and Mars began to call her power upon her.  On the horizon she could feel the power rising as Uranus did the same and she could feel Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury as they called upon their own elements where they stood across the moon.  Closer at hand soldiers once more began to charge her and sadly Mars raised a wall of fire to stop them.  Behind her the Lunarian army had disappeared into shelter and the time was almost there.

In front of her she heard shouting and for a moment she was tempted to ignore it.  What difference would it make?  She was about to silence these unjust attackers eternally so why should she care?  

Because if she did not then she would be as bad as Endymion and his generals.

A figure stepped through her fiery barrier and she wondered if she should laugh or cry.  In the end she did neither as Jadeite the General of the West, a man she could have loved, approached her, sword drawn.

There was grey at his temples.  It was almost unnoticeable but she saw it along with the other small indications of time passing.  It had been years since they last met.  Absently she wondered what he saw now that he looked on her once more.  Did he see her unchanged violet eyes and sable mane?  Or, in the fullness of her power, was all he could perceive the living flame?  It did not matter either way.

"You cannot win Mars."

She did not answer him.  Her power gathered within her and the temperature around her began to rise.

"What do you hope to accomplish?  We outnumber you.  My forces alone outnumber your entire kingdom a thousand times over.  Don't you understand?  We have won."

Her hair began to dance in the air, like black flames around her head.  Almost time…

"I respected you once," she told him and surprised the both of them.  "Twenty years ago, when I met you, I respected you then.  We of the Senshi all did.  In a way I still respect you, my enemy.  But it no longer matters."  Her power flared and she saw the light of her flames reflected in his widening eyes.  His sword swung but her white-hot hand grasped his wrist and stopped him mid-blow.

He smelled of burning flesh and he screamed in pain.

She looked at him in pity.  It was time.  "It is we who have already won…" she whispered and let the fire within her loose.  Jadeite was nothing more than ashes in moments and soon his armies joined him.  

Across the Moon four more planetary Senshi similarly freed their elements and the forces of Earth perished in a conglomeration of fire and wind, sea and storm and ice.  

A single thought was shared between the five:

"Gods grant you eternal serenity my poor enemy… for we surely won't."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The light of Senshi magic given free reign lit the night sky.  Venus felt the exact instant her sister Senshi loosed their power and the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Terran soldiers shook her to the core.  So much death… so much destruction…  All of it due to one man.  There were some truly evil beings spurring the invasion forth and the sorceress called Beryl was not to be dismissed lightly either but in truth the true danger was Endymion and his utterly dark heart.

As if her thought had conjured him she saw the man responsible for the magnitude of the war slip through the shadows of the abandoned city.  Silently she followed him and his two companions as they headed towards the palace.  There was a broad open area in front of the palace where crowds could assemble.  Venus knew it well, Artemis often trained the Senshi there, and there she would act.

Moments later the three men left the shadows.  An instant later a whip of golden light flicked out after them.  The smallest of the trio cried out as he fell and his two companions turned only in time to see him dissolve in a shower of sparks.  

"Who's there?" one of the remaining two demanded.

Venus kept to the shadows and began to coil her weapon-chain for another strike.  The golden chain struck out at the speaker.  He threw himself to the ground.  The second man snatched at the weapon and caught it.  The hidden Senshi smiled grimly and wrenched back on the chain.  It slipped through the man's fingers and bit deep into his palm as it did so.

He hissed in pain.  

The man on the ground rolled to his feet.  Silver hair glinted.  "Venus!"

She gathered the coils of her chain and wrapped it around her waist before stepping into sight.  Blue, green and red flickered across her skin, reflections of distant magic.  She inspected the two men before her.  The injured one was shadowed.  His hair and his eyes were just two more patches of darkness to merge with the blackness that was his whole.  The other was a man she knew and had, at one time, admired.

"You should not have come here Kunzite."  

He looked at her coldly.  "Why are you even bothering Venus?  You cannot hope to win."

"On the contrary.  Your armies have almost been annihilated by now and that is only with the power of five Senshi.  Her Majesty was not even required to wield the Ginzuishou."

"And that is supposed to deter us?" the other man questioned lightly and Venus concealed a shudder of revulsion for him.   It was obvious to her that felt no concern at all for the people he had led on this fool's quest.  Then again she would be foolish if she had expected him to.  Endymion of Earth was as heartless as his allies of the Dark Kingdom.

"It is all for nothing," she growled, suddenly angry.

He smiled hungrily.  "Perhaps you think so.  I do not.  I believe this war to be worth every death."  In a blur of motion he abruptly hurled a score of dart-like weapons towards her.

Instinctively she conjured a crescent-shaped boomerang and let it fly.  It scythed through the majority of the missiles.  She spun, most of the remaining projectiles hummed past harmlessly.  Her hand snapped up and a strange weapon was trapped between two fingers.  Her cheek suddenly stung as a second projectile glanced off it but she ignored the small annoyance.  She examined her catch and inwardly sighed at what she found.  An ebon black rose.  Steel tipped, it would be deadly when hurled with enough force… as Endymion no doubt knew.

"You do?"  Deliberately she met the prince's frighteningly rational eyes and orange-gold ropes of stars spun around her hand.  The rose crumbled in the vortex of power she created.  Then grimly she spread the vortex out around her.  A network of golden lines engulfed her and began to spin furiously.  Resolutely she poured her strength into the deadly web and then cast it at her prey.  It was not a single chain of power that arced towards the dark prince but a thousand and each was interconnected.  There was no escape from it, not even for such as he.  There was no mercy in it, especially not for such as he.  Wielded as Venus intended, the magic meant only death to those caught within.

In some ways it was very similar to Endymion.

The prince retreated and his own power responded.  Not quickly enough.  It loomed over him.  She could almost see the unbreakable strands wrap around him and then the web jerked.  Another shape was tangled within its coils and Endymion was saved.  Venus looked on in sorrow as, for the first time, the prince evinced a shred of true emotion.

Over the corpse of Kunzite she met his eyes and in their depths she saw grief.  "You were not worth his death," she told him.

His indigo gaze became truly terrible and had she been any less than she was she would have feared but she was not.  All that the Terran prince inspired in her was wrath.  "You were not worthy of him," she repeated harshly.  Once more she summoned her magic and the golden power began to dance around her willowy frame, outshining the distant light of her sisters.  She uncoiled the chain from her waist a final time and the length began to hum with the power she infused into it.

Suddenly she felt the ground shake and not due to the power of any of the Senshi.  Unconsciously she turned to the peak outside of the city.  Its tip glowed white as the Prayer Pillar that stood there reflected the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal.  Overhead shadows were gathering and overwhelming the light cast by the battling Senshi.  In that shadow a presence gathered and Venus knew her queen would need her.

With out further thought of the prince she teleported in a blast of gold.  A split second later a blade of strongest Terran steel pierced the spot where she had been but she was already gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The glaive spun and spells ran off it like water.  The strength of the wielder belied her slight stature and Saturn took full advantage of her enemies' misjudgements when they first approached her.  Those that underestimated her never lived to learn from that mistake.  Her current opponent had been the exception, even so Beryl had entered into the duel arrogantly and disbelieving of what her mistress and Endymion had told her of the Senshi of death.

She believed now but the damage had already been done.  It was only a matter of time until she was dead.  The only question remaining was whether or not the sorceress would be capable of taking her opponent with her and saving herself from torment beyond the grave.  Saturn believed not.  

With every moment Metallia, the source of Beryl's power, grew weaker under the Moon queen's barrage of levin bolts.  The Ginzuishou had been roused to full waking and it gathered more strength to invest in each blow.   Even as Saturn thought about it through the crystal Serenity released a bolt of power that shook the moon.  Metallia's substance of shadow flinched in the sky and Beryl wavered.

Saturn felt no victory at all as she moved in to end the duel.  With each blow Beryl retreated but there was no accomplishment to the achievement.  The sorceress meant nothing to the Senshi.  She was merely a pawn who had allowed herself to be used by the patron demon of the Dark Kingdom.  Saturn felt nothing personal against her and so when a golden chain coiled around the woman the Senshi felt nothing more than relief that it was done with.

Knowing that Venus would finish the task she had begun Saturn turned to find her queen.  The monarch's heart shaped face was pale but that was the only sign of her exertion for otherwise it was calm as she and the Ginzuishou slipped into full rapport.  The power now contained within the slender queen's body was awe-inspiring and speechlessly Saturn watched as that power was gathered and cast at the being that haunted the Moon's sky.  

Light lit the darkness.  Purity met corruption.  Demonic queen challenged the royal wielder of the Ginzuishou and lost.  In the distance the Senshi's magic began to die away, their purpose served.  A few steps away Venus yet again recoiled her lethal chain of power.  The foe had been met and matched… all but one.

A cry of rage sounded and the impact of a sword against the stone ground rang out.  The silent Pluto moved into sight from where she had guarded the queen in secret.  Her staff was held ready and she was prepared to intercept another.  The three Senshi turned to face their final opponent.

Somehow he had made his way from the city to stand above them.  Silhouetted in the light of the Prayer Pillar was Endymion.  He straightened from the position that throwing his sword at the Lunarian queen had left him in.  Indigo eyes met silver and for an endless moment the will of two monarchs fought.  

It did not surprise Saturn when neither Moon queen nor Terran prince was able to dominate the other.  For all her power Serenity did not have the dark recesses within her that her younger counterpart possessed.  In his own way he was more terrible than those who had gone before him for he knew himself utterly.  Every perceived flaw he had found within he had scoured from his soul.  Every weakness that might defeat him had been burned away.  What remained was a man who had forged himself into a blade both strong and true but of a metal that no sane man would touch.  Saturn could feel the force contained within him and she knew it.  It was the complement to her own.  Endymion was death wrapped in human form and now that death was rapidly being bared.

This night could still end in tragedy for the Moon Kingdom.  Saturn, more than her sisters, was aware of what the prince was capable of if pressed.  "You are alone," she told him, "There is no more cause for conflict."

He did reply and he did not need to.  Saturn understood his unspoken response implicitly.  He did not need a reason to fight.  War was an end in and of itself.  Deliberately Saturn nodded and stepped between the prince and her queen.  The prince's dark eyes gleamed and his white teeth were bared in a ferocious smile.  He was anticipating the combat to come and the Senshi was certain that it was not because he underestimated her.  They were indeed kindred, this dark prince and she, but there was something within him that even she could not read.  Saturn did not know if anyone could and then wondered if that might not be the heart of the problem.

It no longer mattered.

She levelled her glaive at him.  "Then fight!" she demanded of him and his feral grin grew was lit with unholy glee.  A bright sword appeared almost magically in his hand and then it began.  Girl and man, they leapt and met each other with the clash of steel against… crystal? Had he noticed the blood welling on his palm?  Had he felt the bite of the crystal blade when he had drawn it from its keeping place near the Pillar?  Did he know what it meant for him presuming to take up the Moon Senshi's blade?

The small Senshi's eyes widened in realisation as all these thoughts ran through her mind and that moment of distraction almost cost her her life.  The sword he wielded sang through the air where her neck had been, only reflex saved her.  She moved and her glaive was interposed between them.  Sparks flew and she felt a rush of his magic through the contact.  It was so strong, if fully harnessed it might equal even hers and she was the most powerful Celestial Soldier ever created.  She wondered if he knew.  She wondered if it would have made a difference.  She would never know.

Her glaive spun and he ducked the razor tipped blade to come up within her defences.  She leapt, accepting the burning slash to her side as just reward for her carelessness.  Distantly she wondered if the death that even now slipped through Endymion's guard would be hers as well.  A somersault and then she landed, glaive already in striking position.  As quick as a cobra she snaked forward and her blade bit into his side.  Blood started to flow but the wound was little more than an inconvenience.  Not so the stinging cut on his palm.  His blood had made his grip uncertain and with an unspoken curse he swapped hands.

His unharmed fingers closed around the hilt and he flinched openly.  Blood began to stream from between his fingers and run from the hilt down the blade.  Saturn straightened.  The fight was over without a victor.  Shadowed indigo eyes met hers and she endured the furious awareness in his gaze stoically.  He had dared to draw the crystal sword.  This was his payment for those few moments in which he had matched a Senshi.

For a moment longer their stares remained locked, aging man and ageless girl.  Even with the first flush of youth behind him he was magnificent.  It was a tragedy that all that potential for greatness had been warped.  Without looking away from her he raised the sword in two hands.  His bright blood ran freely down its length and Saturn could feel the power contained in each drop.  Endymion made no attempt to stave of death.  With each of drop of blood that flowed over the sword he grew weaker… yet in another way he grew, not lighter exactly, but more brilliant.  It was almost as if he flared a final time with his own dark light.

He held the sword vertical, the hilt in one hand raised above his head and the second clasped the blade at the level of his chest.  With great exaggeration he kissed the blade.  His power reached its peak and exploded.  The air became congested with black rose petals.  Behind her Saturn was sure that Pluto and Venus had shielded the queen but there had been no need.  Endymion was making a statement and, this time, that statement did not involve the death of any bar himself.

One by one, the petals fell to the ground.  She looked down and smiled slightly at the man's arrogance.  Sailor Moon's blade was once more embedded in the marble base near the Prayer Pillar.  By some twist of fate their duel had brought them there and there the unique sword had fallen in Endymion's last moment.  There was one difference however.  Earth's prince being unable to surrender the last word, the crystal blade now had faint tracings of crimson in its clear blade and six perfect rubies were set within the hilt. Even in the end he had made a mark.  What was unexpected was that the sword had permitted him to do so.

There was no sign of the prince but Saturn had felt his passing.  He was no longer among the living, of that she was convinced, but that did not mean he was of the dead.  He would be back, she certain of it.  The part of the Senshi that was attuned to death could feel it.  He would return, his generals at his side, and when he did…  Nothing would be held sacred.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neptune and Uranus fought side by side.  Their blades flashing like quicksilver in the battle charged atmosphere.  Not all of the Terran invaders had been on the Moon's surface.  More than one company had made their way into the catacombs that twisted like honeycombs under the Moon Kingdom's surface.  Add those to the enemies that had fled the Senshi's reckoning a few hours before and the Lunarians were left with the tedious task of rooting the remaining Terrans out.

The last of the foreign soldiers fell to Uranus' sword and she allowed herself to relax slightly.  Already the royal guards were moving the bodies to the side so that passage would not be hindered.  There the bodies would remain until the war was ended.  A small group of non-combatants crept out of hiding and Uranus made herself smile at the children.

"All will be well now."

"Will it?" an old woman asked.

Uranus nodded.  "Yes," she replied absolutely certain.  "It will."

Neptune agreed calmly, "Endymion and his generals are dead, as is Beryl, and the queen herself destroyed Metallia.  Earth's armies are broken and the remnants flee our guards.  They are of no more danger to us now.  The Senshi crushed their spirit as well as their forces."

"You destroyed our kingdom!  Our farms and cities were also ruined in the magic you called down upon the Terrans," an old man declared sadly and one of the children whimpered in fear.

Neptune's eye gentled.  "You were in the last wave of the evacuation were you not?  That was why you were caught here.  You have not yet seen the sanctuary."

"What has that to do with anything?" the old woman asked.

Uranus straightened and regarded the group with slightly less sympathy.  "Do you believe in our queen?" she asked them, a hint of coldness in her voice.  The Lunarians nodded quickly, some with outraged expressions as if to ask, you doubt us?  

Luna's voice warmed once more.  "Then trust that she will do what is best.  Have faith."

"Sailor Uranus?  Sailor Neptune?" a young man in a silver and white guard uniform saluted the two advisors.  Neptune nodded for him to continue.  "I was commanded to inform you that no more invaders have been found in the catacombs.  Mars and Jupiter report that all surviving Terrans are on the surface and are even now boarding their transports for Earth."

"There are enough to return all of them?"  Uranus frowned as she considered the shuttle numbers that the Senshi had reported as destroyed.  It had taken Zoisite three days to transport all of his prince's forces to the Moon, even with the aid of the Dark Kingdom.  The death toll among the invaders had been staggering but more than half of the shuttles had also been destroyed.  

The guard nodded.  "Yes ma'am.  Mercury calculated that there would be more than enough space.  She also asked that I inform you that the task you requested of her is completed and the spell in place."

"Thank you lieutenant," Neptune said, nodding.  "Was there anything else?"

"Only that the queen is preparing to address the people.   The captain thought you might like to be there."

"Thank you," Neptune told him again and looked at the small group of waiting civilians thoughtfully.  "I think we all might attend."  

Uranus nodded in agreement and gestured to the commander of their guard detachment.

"Lady Uranus?"

"Detail sentries for this sector and gather the rest of your people.  We will need to teleport if we wish to arrive in time for the assembly."

"Yes my lady."  She turned and started snapping commands while the children and their kin looked on, slightly awed and more than a little excited.  Uranus restrained a small smile.  These people would no doubt consider this one of the highlights of their lives.  After all, how many people accompanied a Senshi in a teleport?

Moments later the commander and her guards had chivvied the civilians into a closely surrounding Uranus and Neptune at the latter's direction.  Then the two Celestial Soldiers smiled at one another.  With great deliberation each reached a hand to the other.  Two tiara gems began to blaze with light.  Dark blue eyes met sea green and the minds of the two who were more than human connected.  Power flared and the universe spun.  When it settled once more the group found itself inside a cavern that gave reason to believe the Moon was hollow.  

Here and there torches and lanterns lit the darkness and occasionally even a magelight added to the dim illumination.  They found themselves on a large ledge relatively close to halfway between the ceiling and the floor of the rocky chamber.  The ledge was almost exactly on level with the flat tip of a bizarre stalagmite formation that resembled a mushroom.  There was slight consternation in the crowd at the sudden appearance of the new arrivals but it vanished almost instantly.  The royal advisors had already arrived and were standing on the natural platform made from the stalagmite, heralding the queen's appearance.

In a flash of silver the queen appeared, her royal staff in hand and the Ginzuishou glimmering softly at its tip.  Those few who had not been silent before quietened then and there was utter silence as queen Serenity began to speak.

"Many brave souls have passed from this world and, though our losses were few in light of that which our enemies suffered, each and every one of our lost kin will be mourned.  Yet their sacrifice was not in vain.  The Terran menace is ended."

Had those words come from another those gathered would have cheered but all could hear the unutterable grief that the queen attempted to conceal.  She was Serenity but they were her people and they knew her well.  Every death weighed upon her despite the knowledge that the massacre of the Terrans had meant less than a score of her own subject were killed.  

The people waited in silence for the queen to finish.  Faintly Uranus made out her sad smile at the absence of celebration.  "The Terran menace is ended," Serenity repeated and then added gravely, "For now.  Earth will recover and her people will once more come against us.  Her prince is dead but his was a power over death and he will return, so has the Senshi of Saturn assured me.  When he finds his way back to the realm of the living he will gather his forces to his side and once more there will be war.  Metallia and Beryl are dead but the Dark Kingdom still dwells and it only awaits Endymion's touch to resurrect it.  The threat to our people is not gone.  It is merely sleeping."

Those were indeed grim tidings but no more than Uranus had expected.  Around her people muttered quietly.  

Serenity's silver eyes suddenly flashed with determination and her people straightened as her purpose infected them.  "But we are not helpless!" she announced proudly.  "We of the White Moon will never be helpless to affect our own fate!"  

Artemis stepped forward and cried out, "Do we not have the Ginzuishou?"   The gathered Lunarians murmured an affirmative.  Artemis glared and demanded loudly, "Have we not just caused the destruction of the demon Metallia?"  The murmur grew louder.  "Did we not just defeat an enemy a thousand times stronger than us?" The noise grew into a dull roar.  "Do we not have _eight_ Senshi fighting for us?"  Artemis paused then and the people quietened in anticipation.  His next words were quietly solemn yet they all the more compelling because of it.

"Is not Sailor Cosmos one of us?"

For a moment there was absolute silence and then there was pandemonium.  Uranus grinned as the ever-elegant Neptune ferociously joined the bedlam and then screamed her own agreement.  They were Senshi but they were also Lunarian and they too knew the pride of having produced a princess born to such a role.  If their people were capable of bringing forth such a being then what was _not_ possible for them? 

It was some time before the riotous tumult died away and by then Uranus could feel other Senshi scattered throughout the cavern.  As soon as the noise died away enough for her to be heard one of these latecomers spoke up.

"Endymion is a terrible foe, true."  Everyone turned to where Saturn stood with Venus on a ledge near the top of the cavern.  Her normally soft-spoken demeanour was gone and the Senshi of death showed her true steel.  "He is possibly the most fearsome mortal man ever to exist.  But."  The last word rang out forcefully.  "But!" she repeated, "Even he could not overcome a united Moon Kingdom!"  

At her side Venus announced angrily, "He _dared_ to draw _our_ princess' sword!"

Uranus knew this already and still she was outraged at the man's presumption.  She was not the only one and for most this was the first they had heard of it.  An angry rumbling began in the cavern.  In the distance Uranus could feel the satisfaction that the reaction of assembled kingdom gave her sister Senshi.  

Venus' voice was fiercely exultant as she proclaimed, "And he _died_ for it!"

Uranus laughed as her people screamed their throats raw.  For a short time she had feared that the Lunarians would break but that fear was now proven groundless.  Endymion was a very real threat for the future but they would meet it with heads held high.

"My people!" Serenity cried out, "We have come to a crossroads in our history."  The crowd quietened again and looked to their queen with absolute faith in her.  Uranus knew the silver-haired monarch felt it and would do everything in her power to prove herself worthy of it.  The Senshi wondered if the queen would ever realise that she had done that in her people's eyes a half a century before when she had given her daughter up for the greater good.

"We could persist in doing as we have done before," Serenity continued, unaware of the blonde Senshi's thoughts.  "We could rebuild the cities on the surface. We could replant the crops that were destroyed at the Senshi's own hands.  We could return to our old way of life… but we will not!"  Silver eyes raked the gathered masses and found not one objection, not a hint of resentment and not a trace of doubt.  All that existed was a silent patience as every soul of the Moon Kingdom waited for their queen to lead them.

Serenity nodded and abruptly turned her attention to her female advisor.  "Luna?" 

The black-maned woman nodded.  "It is done you Majesty.  Mercury assures me that every Terran to leave our Moon will do so believing the Senshi destroyed everything.  To them the Moon Kingdom died in the Reckoning."

"Artemis?"

The man straightened and reported.  "The evacuation was complete.  None of our people remain on the surface.  The herds have been moved to the designated cavern complex.  Jupiter has done as you bid and even the plant life has been brought here.  Nothing living has been left."

Realisation started to spread throughout those gathered.

Serenity's crescent blazed.  "Let it be known that henceforth both the Senshi of Pluto and the Senshi of Saturn shall reside within Limbo!  Pluto shall guard the Gates of Time and Saturn the Gates between Life and Death.  When Endymion and his allies return we shall know of it ahead of time."

The heart-shaped face of the queen was set with determination.  "Uranus and Neptune, it was ever your duty to patrol the borders of the solar system and so shall it remain.  Yet when Pluto and Saturn call, you will return to fight the war once more."  Uranus and her partner bowed to acknowledge the command.  It did not matter that the queen could not see, she would _know_.  She did.

That left the four Senshi of the inner worlds, they who would have guarded the princess had other choices been made.  Serenity looked up to where golden Venus waited.  "The inner Senshi shall reside among Terrans _as_ Terrans…"   

There were indications of shock from around the cavern.  Send Senshi to live as ordinary humans?  _Terran_ humans? It was unthinkable! But not to one of the four Soldiers so commanded was it a surprise.  Who better than they to be the hidden defence?  

"As for us, my people, we shall take measures to ensure that never again will Earth look to us with a hostile gaze!  Never again will the Senshi be forced to loose a Reckoning upon our soil!  Never again will we be forced to war with those whom we protect!  I AM SERENITY AND THIS IS MY WILL."  The hand that held he staff thrust it forcefully into the air.  The crystal blazed and the cavern filled with light.  The ground shook as she called upon the white glory that lay within those crystalline depths.

With her Senshi senses Uranus felt the very rock of the Moon bowing to the Queen's will.  Above them surface of the Moon was forever altered.  Plains and mountains that had already been scoured by the power of five Senshi recreated themselves.  Buildings were swallowed by ground and the seas vanished.  The very air abandoned the surface world and soon all that remained was crater-scarred rock and a single, lone remnant of Moon Kingdom.  The Prayer Pillar stood still, high above the ground where a citied once dwelled.  The sword of Serenity still embedded in its base.  It was the solitary monument to a past that would retreat into myth.

Some fell to the ground as their world changed.  Other's shielded their eyes as the crystal floated from its keeping place.  It rose into the air and slowly a silver sun dawned on the reborn Moon Kingdom for the first time.  The queen allowed her people a moment to adjust to what they could now see.  All around them the homes and structures that had once graced the surface world now lined the cavern's ledges.  Their structures were subtly redesigned to accommodate the subterranean environs and yet the ethereal beauty of the Moon Kingdom still lived on.  On the floor below them shoots already pushed through dark soil as new crops began to grow.  

She looked out at them, her silver eyes fey and still lit from within by the power of the Ginzuishou.  Then, for the final time that day, queen Serenity addressed her people.  "From this time onwards the surface of our world will remain barren."  She paused and then spoke the words that would become the unbroken law.  "Henceforth to the people of Earth the White Moon is _dead_."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_And so my people and I retreated into legend.  Perhaps we would have been forgotten entirely, Pluto only knows, if Endymion had not returned time after time as Saturn had promised.  Time after time my Senshi found him and, time after time, my Senshi stopped him.  Never again did he attain the heights of political power he possessed before his first death yet always in each lifetime he left his mark upon his people._

_The myth of Selene was one such.  The arrogance of the man, that he could and would dare to make all believe that _I_ was obsessed with _him_!  Still it is no more than a harmless story, although the Senshi were less accepting than even I!  When I consider the frustration my people and I caused him when he could not prove our continued existence I believe it to be a minor revenge.  He was capable, and still is, of much, much worse.  Still, though he tries, he can reach neither my people nor myself.  His Senshi watchers are too powerful._

_And so I present some of the earliest consequences of my decisions.  Both Pluto and Saturn were virtually imprisoned within Limbo, my four inner Senshi condemned to exile on Earth and Neptune and Uranus became my people's sole remaining defence.  And Endymion, dark, evil, terrible… lonely Endymion, he who could have been one of his world's greatest heroes became one of the greatest villains._


	3. 3 of 8

Well I'm back again and when I checked I found more reviews than I'd ever gotten for so little before.  Wow and thank you and please keep it up.  Good and bad feedback is welcome.  Anyway here's the next part (there will be eight in all) and I hope you all enjoy.

Draegyn

The Choices we make: part three

It was over a thousand years between the day I gave my daughter to Starseeker and the day I saw her once more.  A thousand years.  A lifetime for my people and more than ten for those of Earth.  In that time she grew from the precious little bundle of joy I had known to a treasured and beautiful lady of light.  So many lives had she saved in her time.  So many worlds there are that call her saviour.  She was a light in the darkness and would have been either way I chose on that day so long ago.

_I chose her future as honour and duty bade me.  I set her upon a Hellish path of responsibility and yet she thrived.  Whether she will ever admit it or no, she was born with destiny and fate as midwives.  It did not surprise me, I who loved her sire, that she was Cosmos and it did not surprise me that she of all the Senshi, Greater or Lesser, was the one whom Chaos feared.  It, a being that was entropy personified, feared her._

_My sisters of the Greater Kindred had not exaggerated when they told me of the threat that was to come.  In time, when I came to fully understand the truth of their words, some of my guilt for my precious Serenity's absence faded.  When my child was barely grown and still coming into her full strength as Senshi the universe spawned forth a primal force that should never have been concentrated into a single being.  When I learned of this I knew then that my daughter would have been ensnared by the Senshi's war whether or not she had gone with Starseeker.  Chaos would have been drawn to her, as happened in truth, and she would have had to fight it._

_She had no choice in this.  She never would.  She was her sire's daughter, and mine.  She was the Senshi of life.  _

_She was Cosmos._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cosmos released the threads of power she had commanded and opened her senses to the real world once more.  Three Starlight Senshi watched her patiently.  She smiled at them in quiet satisfaction, the damage that Chaos had wrought had been undone and she was now free to pursue it once more.  Perhaps this time she might find it before it discovered another world with which to hide on and behind.  

"It is done," she assured her sister Senshi.  "I am free to take up the chase yet again."  She straightened and stretched to banish the stiffness her slender limbs.  Starfighter extended her hand and Cosmos accepted the raven-haired Senshi's help gratefully.  She had been still for far too long.  "Have you any news?" she inquired as she worked her uncooperative body.  A thousand years ago she could have spent a year spell-working with no adverse affects and now a mere month caused her body to rebel.  Perhaps she was growing old… or perhaps it was the eternal hunt that wore at her.  Soon, she promised herself, soon she would have her friend back and Chaos would be no more than a bitter memory.  Soon.

She realised that her companion Senshi were regarding her in silence.  Her sapphire eyes fixed on the auburn-haired Sailor Starmaker.  "Maker?  What have you not told me?"

"We have found were Chaos has fled Serenity."  

Her stomach knotted.  Never did her friends call her by her birth name unless there was something very wrong.  "What?" she demanded softly.

Starmaker looked away and Starhealer's light green eyes followed as their owner whispered reluctantly.  "It is as we feared; Chaos and those it has enslaved have already found another inhabited planet."

"It is the world which your mother's moon orbits," Starfighter finished.

Cosmos accepted the news with as much calm as she could summon.  Her mother…  Queen Serenity of the White Moon.  She had always wished to meet the woman who had borne her and had known that one day she would no doubt have that wish granted.  At the very least the double destiny her teachers Starseeker and Starteacher had prepared her for would have led her back to the Moon but the Senshi Wars had made that impossible… until now.  She considered the information as rationally as possible, her exhaustive training as a child making that far easier than it might otherwise have been.

Chaos had gone to Earth and taken those Senshi it still controlled with it…   Galaxia…  By this time it, in all probability, had reached the distant world and if it had not it soon would.  She would not be able to challenge it when it left the depths of space and that once more left her at the disadvantage.  She could _not_ risk becoming embroiled in full battle with Chaos on the surface of an inhabited world, especially not when it was possessed of Galaxia's abilities as it was now.  Cosmos had no doubt she would survive and indeed win but the fate of any such world was less certain.  

"So we do this as per normal?" Starhealer asked her.  "The three of us go in, stop whatever Chaos is getting up to and lure it off planet for you to deal with?"

"Only this time we do it before it can set entropy in motion," Starmaker added blandly, "It rather defeats the purpose to get it within your reach only for you to be forced to let it go while you rush to undo whatever disaster it has set in motion."

"Maybeso," Cosmos agreed thoughtfully, "Then again, maybeno."  She looked at her companions carefully.  "You are still determined to accompany me?  You will not return to Kinmoku and Kakyuu?"

"We will see this through to the end Cosmos," Starfighter swore seriously.  "Our people and our princess understood that when we left our home with you.  After what you have done for us they will expect no less."

Cosmos nodded and pulled away from Starfighter.  Absently she retrieved her staff and flipped one of her long streamers of silver hair over her shoulder to fall amongst the folds her cloak.  She stepped back from the three Senshi so that she could examine them all together and then, abruptly, she gave them one of her brilliant smiles, the kind she knew they found to be as intoxicating as any alcohol.

"It has just occurred to me that Chaos may have outsmarted itself this time." She knew she sounded impish but she could not help herself.  

"Oh?" Starhealer responded archly, some of Cosmos' levity having spread to her.

Cosmos nodded cheerfully.  "When I was still in training, during those times that Starteacher was not running me ragged, Starseeker would often take me aside and tell me of my people and our history."  It was not essential for those of the Greater Kindred to know such things of remote civilisations but Starseeker had been there when queen Serenity had placed a second roll upon her daughter's shoulders.  What was not necessary for Sailor Cosmos to know would be for Sailor Moon.

"Queen Serenity… my mother is possessed of a powerful gem, a crystal called the Ginzuishou to be exact.  Have you heard of it?"

Starmaker inhaled sharply.  "Are you thinking what I think you are?"

"If you mean that I thinking that perhaps my mother will accomplish what I can not and prevent Chaos from holding an entire planet hostage then you are right."  Cosmos felt the many-pointed star on her forehead blaze white-hot in her growing anticipation.  "I am wondering if my royal mother might not be able to hold Chaos in space until we arrive.  I am wondering if the Ginzuishou might enable Galaxia to slip from Chaos' power.  There are many possibilities but I am sure of several things.  First is that my mother had and still has the potential to be a Stellar Senshi, her help will undoubtedly be of great use to us.  Second is that there are eight of the Lesser Kindred who serve in my mother's court.  Eight Soldiers who could be very great allies to us… or very great enemies should Chaos corrupt them."

"Is there a third?" Starfighter asked quietly.

Cosmos nodded and felt her companions flinch as her insignia became blinding.  "Third is that I am tired of holding back.  I am tired of avoiding confrontation with Chaos for fear of destroying the very worlds I am supposed to protect.  I want this ended," she finished grimly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aino Minako and Kino Makoto sat together, sipping their tea in open air and unobtrusively watching three men who sat a few tables away.  Of the three, each radiated power and danger but only the one with the short dark hair gave the sensation of bleak desolation.  He was the true danger, his name was Chiba Mamoru and he was the current incarnation of the Senshi's nemesis Endymion.

"What do you think?" Minako, Senshi of Venus, asked her sister.  "Is he up to something?"

The disguised Jupiter snorted softly.  "You mean aside from trying to drive us crazy?  Odds are yep."

"So far he's tried to resurrect the Dark Kingdom twice this time round and he helped those aliens a while back as well.  He's twenty-two!" she exclaimed and then lowered her voice when the silver-haired man with Mamoru looked over at them.  "It's like his heart isn't in it any more…" she paused and then looked at her friend hopefully.  "You don't suppose he's getting tired of the whole evil bit?  It's been how many lifetimes now?  Twenty?  Thirty?  Maybe he's finally decided that there's no point to stirring trouble the way he does."

"He's probably just thinking up better and more original ways to cause trouble," Makoto sighed.  "You know Endymion, if it's worth doing it's worth doing well.  You should know that by now… especially after the World War II incident.  Great Serenity, he _enjoyed_ being Hitler Mina-chan.  Because of him the entirety of Eastern Europe was almost completely depopulated.  He has proved long since that there's no atrocity he's not capable of and no lengths to which he won't go to accomplish the goals he sets for himself."

Minako slumped and rubbed the old scar on her cheek wearily.  "I always thought that his vanity would help limit him you know.  When he masqueraded as Rudolph Hitler he totally blew that notion out of the water…  I still recall the day we found him surrounded by corpses.  Do you remember?  He had even piled several to use as a chair, and then he looked up at me with that stupid little moustache and he was smiling!"

"We've been through it before Minako, we can't judge him like other people.  He's too different."

"He's crazy, that's what his is.  Psychopath, sociopath, psychotic, you name he is it.  He's completely insane."

"Define sane."

Both Senshi stiffened at the sound of the deep voice.  Minako looked up at the three men who had approached them unnoticed.  "It's what you're not, now go away.  We may have to watch you but we don't have to associate with you."

"Why Venus, you're going to hurt my feelings if you keep talking like that." Mamoru's voice was calm and friendly as was his smile but deep within his indigo eyes Minako swore she could see the evil truth of what appeared to be an ordinary young man.  It did not help her that for the first time in several lifetimes he had chosen a form that greatly resembled his original appearance.  Or that Kunzite and Jadeite stood beside him, looking like almost exact replicas of themselves in the past.  Tatsuo Kai and Saori Jin they were in this lifetime.

"What do you want?" Makoto snapped wearily and knocked the blonde general's hand aside before it could rest on her shoulder.

"Jupiter-sama, is that any way to act with an old friend?" Jin asked snidely but he did not dare to touch her again.

The Senshi stared to eyes as green as her own and bared her teeth it what could not even charitably be called a smile.  "Saori-san if you do not leave me alone I will take great pleasure in breaking you nose.  Have a nice day."

"You would deny these gentlemen and myself the joy of your company?  For shame!"  Mamoru pouted slightly.  Some women would have swooned.  Minako thought he looked foolish.  Behind her she could feel Kai smile and she knew that he was aware of her opinion.  Mamoru, in all likelihood, was as well but he was impossible for her to read.  "What about you my lovely Venus?" he continued.  Minako could have ignored both his persistent use of her title and his presence had he not had the temerity to cup her chin in his fingers and force her to look at him.  "Well Mina-chan?"

Minako wrenched away from his touch and both she and Makoto lurched to their feet.  "Don't ever touch me," she hissed.

He held up his hands as if to placate her but his smile was singularly insulting.  "Now my dear Mina-chan…"

"Listen to me Chiba-san," she growled at him, "You revolt me and I cannot wait for the moment I can extinguish your wretched life yet again.  You are the most evil and repulsive bastard to ever walk this planet."

"And what's your basis for comparison?"

"Just give me an excuse Chiba, all I need is one."

Minako never heard his response for even as his mouth opened to give it, her universe turned upside down.  She stumbled backwards and a pair of strong hands steadied her while emotionless indigo eyes stared at her coolly.  She could not have cared less that she was in the arms of one enemy while an even more dangerous opponent assessed her.  The Power that she felt arriving on Earth was of far greater import to her.

It felt like an eternity before her world finally returned to a semblance of normality but it was probably only a few seconds.  She looked to Makoto and found her leaning on her abandoned chair with a pale face.

"Did you feel that Mako-chan?  Senshi!"

"One of the Greater Kindred," Makoto confirmed, "It had to be, it was so strong!"

"Do you think…?"  Minako couldn't finish the question but her fellow Senshi knew what she meant.  What Lunarian would not?  The return of their princess was much anticipated and eagerly awaited.

Makoto frowned.  "But it felt different… wrong somehow."

Minako nodded, understanding instantly.  They should not have been so overcome by even the power of the greatest Celestial Warrior.

"It's unpredictable," Mamoru commented.

Minako finally noticed her position and quickly wrenched herself from Kai's arms.  She turned on Mamoru once more.  "What are you talking about?" 

He raised an eyebrow, an eloquent and infuriating mannerism that Minako had often dreamed of destroying with a razor… a blunt one.  "Your guest," he drawled as if it were obvious.  "She is rather unpredictable, if it is a she of course.  I would not be too certain of that."

"Senshi are always female," Makoto stated.

His expression did not change.  "Whatever.  I don't give a damn."  He didn't, but then he never did.  Not in any lifetime.  He smiled and she blinked when she identified something that was almost yearning in it.  "There's more here than you think… but then why am I telling you this?"  His smile became a smirk as he taunted her, "You're an almighty Senshi.  You don't need a mere human to tell you something that you must already know!"  The smirk grew perfectly malicious and his persona of a solemn young man fell away to reveal the demon-like truth.  "You are going to have an interesting few days I should think pretty Venus.  It should be very interesting."  With that he walked away, Kai and Jin at his side.

"I hate him," Minako said passionately.

"He was right though," Makoto added honestly, "Everything he said just then rang of the truth."

Minako didn't stop scowling.  "I still hate him and he's still crazy."

Makoto's eyes became distant.  "I wonder…"

"What?" the blonde questioned, "If he's crazy?  Of course he is.  Why else would he be the way he is?"

"Sometimes I think that maybe he's like that because he's sane, frighteningly sane.  I wonder if the way he behaves is pretence and he acts the way he thinks a crazy person would act to keep us on the wrong track.  Sometimes I even wonder if he's thrown himself so thoroughly into the roll because he doesn't want to be himself and then I wonder, what's so bad about being in his head that he prefers to pretend to be in someone else's?  Does that make sense?"

Minako thought about it for a moment, forcing her brain to follow the torturous logic.  She winced.  "Sort of but thinking about it too much hurts Mako.  It's been a thousand years and I don't want to understand him.  I just want to stop him."

Makoto's emerald eyes were sober and strangely sad when she replied, "To stop him we're going to have to understand him."

Mina shook her head.  "I don't want to go into his head…  I'm afraid of what I'll be like when I get out again."  She looked away and then blinked.  "Uranus and Neptune just got here.  We should go."

"Pluto and Saturn are with them," Makoto added.

Minako's sky blue eyes darkened with worry as she felt what her friend did.  Together they began to walk in the direction they could feel their fellow Senshi gathering.  "He was right," she admitted heavily, "But I still hate him and I still think he's crazy."

Makoto was silent for a moment and then she murmured, so quietly that Minako almost didn't catch the words, "I hope he is… for his sake I really do."

Neither said a further word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was a petite young woman with an inky-black shock of hair and intelligent blue eyes.  Her name was Mizuno Ami and she ran into the alley dressed in a neat pants suit with a white doctor's coat over the top.  She left the alley several inches taller with dark blue hair and dressed in something that very much resembled a present day Terran sailor suit, only with a much shorter skirt and far more useful accessories.  Her name was Sailor Mercury, Senshi of ice.

She pelted through the streets of Tokyo with a speed that left bystanders gaping and as soon as she could she took to the rooftops, the highways that she and her sister Senshi used.  Below her people once more returned their attention to everyday things.  The Sailor Senshi had become, if not a common sight, at least a harmless one.  No Terran living, bar a certain five, remembered the truth of the Senshi.  They were called superheroes now.  She smiled at the thought.

Moments later another ran at her side, long raven locks trailing like a flag behind her.  Without a word Mercury welcomed Mars and together they ran on.  The incredible but dreadful power drew them like moths to a flame.  Duty compelled them yo go while self-preservation warned them to flee.  Duty won.

In the middle of Tokyo lay an expanse of parkland.  On such a bright summer's day it was filled with families and children, hundreds of defenceless humans.  It was there the power led them.  Mercury perched on the edge of a building that overlooked the green area and stared out at the crowd.  Somewhere in there was something that was not human, she could feel it, and it would not be long before all those innocents learned of it as well.

A brief mental command and her visor materialised from her tiara.  Through the blue crystallised window she searched the park, her computer's readings superimposed over her vision.  

"Can you find her?" Mars' asked calmly.

Mercury frowned.  She could find nothing that registered on her computer anything like the way the mysterious power had set her own senses off.  "No," she replied as she swept another sector of the park.  I can't… wait!"  She adjusted her visor's magnification and focused on a single figure in the crowd.  In front of her left eye a transparent image of the stranger in question formed and readings began to scroll down her visor as she examined it.  After a moment she gasped.  "She's Senshi!"

Mars glance at her sharply.  "Who?" she demanded harshly.

Mercury pointed.  "There in black.  Weird boots, fishnet stockings, revealing dress, gloves up to her shoulders, feline head-like hat and tail."

Mars searched and after a moment found her.  "Your basic Senshi uniform done in black leather to a cat theme," she agreed.  "I can feel the bad vibes even from here."  

"She's a metal Senshi," a cool voice said from behind them.  Four more Senshi stepped up beside Mars and Mercury.  Pluto stared out at the park in the direction of the one she had described as a Metal Senshi and her ruby eyes were hard.  "I do not know who she is but she should not be here."

"How'd she get past us though?" Uranus started to ask and then she looked hard at the smaller Saturn.  "You…"

Saturn's face was unreadable.  "Yes, I distracted you at the critical moment.  Neither you nor Neptune would have survived an encounter with the power that one travelled beside, had you met them alone.  Pluto and I deemed it best that you should meet them here with our sisters by your side."

"I don't like it…"

"Of course you don't Uranus, none of us like it when someone suggests we need help.  I'd deck anyone who'd even think that I couldn't handle my job but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes we all need help."

The last two of the Senshi sworn to the Moon Kingdom arrived and Jupiter nodded in wry greeting to her friends.  Venus copied her absently, her pretty face twisted into a scowl.

"He's still watching us," she muttered darkly.

"Who?" Neptune asked with a slight frown but they all could see that she had a fairly good idea already.  There was only one man that Venus loathed so passionately.

"The Prince, who else?" Jupiter sighed then snorted.  "Come on Venus.  He said himself that this was going to be interesting.  He's probably out there somewhere and thinking of this as entertainment put on for his benefit."

"Whoever she is she's a Senshi right?  One of our sisters?  Why should it interest him?" Venus persisted mulishly.  Mercury looked at her commander and blinked. 

Neptune said with unaccustomed venom, "It would amuse Endymion to no extent to watch Senshi battle each other."

"Is it inevitable?" Mars asked Pluto.  The Senshi of time nodded and her fingers beat a small tattoo on the polished wood of her staff.

Mercury flicked off her visor.  "She's a Metal Senshi but she's stronger than you think," she warned, "A lot stronger."

Venus muttered something unmentionable under her breath and Jupiter gave the rest of them with another of her dry smiles.  "She was hoping that she could prove the prince wrong…" the brunette started to explain only to be interrupted by the blonde.

"Prove him wrong?  Oh no, more than that.  I want to rub his nose in it.  I want him to drown in the evidence of his mortal fallibility and one day I will.  You just wait and see."

"When there's time you will have to explain exactly what he said but until then get over it Venus," Mars snapped and turned her vivid eyes back to the distant Senshi.  "Whatever she's up to is about to begin."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The golden light faded and silver and black resolved into the barren landscape of the moon under an endless night sky.  Starfighter turned in time to see Cosmos lower her staff and look at the world of her birth for the first time in her memory.  Dark blue eyes narrowed in concern as her Sister's face paled at the unexpected emptiness of the White Moon.  Starfighter allowed her own eyes to roam for the merest instant and she too was taken aback at the complete devastation that must have taken place to so completely and irrevocably erase the traces of an entire civilisation.  When her eyes once more returned to her silver-haired friend she felt a pang of sorrow.

Whatever homecoming the beautiful Senshi had hoped for would not be found here.  Even if by some miraculous turn of fate the Lunarian nation still existed, Cosmos no longer belonged here.  She had become a being that surpassed the stars and if the Moon's pale landscape enhanced her beauty, in some intangible way it also shied away from her.  It was as if the Moon itself was in awe of her.  Starfighter dismissed her musings with an abrupt shake of her head.

"It's so empty," Starhealer whispered, "What happened here?  Where's everyone that's supposed to be here?"

In the same breath Starmaker asked softly,  "What happened here?"

Wings of gold shimmered and disappeared to be replaced by a golden cloak that draped elegantly about its wearer.  Gracefully Cosmos stooped and laid her free hand against the dusty, rock-littered ground.  Her inimitable sapphire eyes drifted shut and Starfighter held her breath.  A part of her hoped that there would be something for the Senshi of life to find but another, wiser, part of her hoped that the search would be fruitless.  She could not help but think that in the long run it would be less painful for her sister if nothing on the Moon remained that would attempt to bind her here.  All such efforts would fail but that would not prevent Cosmos from being hurt.

Abruptly the woman in question rose to her feet and strode off between the jagged rocks that decorated the landscaped.  Starfighter exchanged a concerned glance with her fellow Starlights and then the three hurried after their commander.

"Serenity?" Starfighter called out.  The slender figure stopped and turned back.  Her heart-shaped face was almost dreamy and her eyes distant.

"Yes?"

"You know that Chaos has already reached Earth?" Starfighter hoped that her friend would free herself from whatever reverie held her.  She could feel something stirring beneath the surface of this ancient moon.  It was coming and, more and more, the Starlight wished to take Cosmos away from it.

"I know."  In the same distant voice the silver-haired woman murmured.  For a moment she began to sway to some hidden melody.  Her two pigtails twined sinuously around her body, the crescent clips against her heart shaped buns glimmered with hidden secrets.  For an instant the eight-pointed star that adorned her brow seemed to blink like a great golden eye leaving an impression of a softly shining crescent.  Her arms lifted and her cloak flared and shimmered into her elegant wings.  Wings and arms outstretched, her mind lost in that concealed song, she allowed her power to rise and guide her.

Her unseeing eyes closed and she walked unerringly backwards.  Hesitantly the three Starlights followed her.  They had known and travelled with her for nearly ten years, leaving her side only rarely in that decade they had been her companions and never had they seen her like this.  Even in the grip of the full strength of her magic, never had she been so distracted in the past.  It bewildered them and frightened them also.  A part of Starfighter's mind involuntarily went to Chaos but whatever strangeness that had locked the primal force and the universe's greatest guardian into an unbreakable cycle of predator and prey did not cause this.  No it was some other power mesmerising Cosmos.  

It took only a moment for the Starlight to ascertain that the power was not from the Moon either.  A short time ago that would have made her feel better.  Why did it not now?

Gold power wrapped around their limbs and the silver-grey landscape seemed to merge with the power that compelled them forward.  Cosmos spurred them onwards to her mysterious goal.  Time flowed and stopped in fits and starts.  Distance became nothing and helplessly they could do naught but follow in their companion's footsteps.  A light began to build somewhere.  It was not yet visible but in each of the Senshi's hearts they could feel it grow.  It was not power that called them, although the light echoed with it.  There was just that light and Cosmos' need.

Starfighter's apprehension grew and so did the sense of fate.  What she would have preferred no longer mattered.  Events had now been set in motion, mostly like had been the moment Cosmos had first touched the soil of her birth world, and they would run their course.  There was no more she could do for the woman who had saved her people aside from standing with her through the trials that would come.  

No sooner had the raven-haired Senshi surrender to Cosmos' magic then the spells that bound them all vanished.  The Starlights were released by the gentle compulsion that Cosmos had cast upon them.  The universe was released from whatever magic had twisted it so they had travelled half the breadth of the Moon unknowing.  And Cosmos, glorious Cosmos, opened her sapphire eyes and smiled joyfully with newfound understanding.

"You must go.  Tin Nyanko even now draws the Senshi from Queen Serenity's court into Chaos' grasp.  They are unaware of the danger either poses to the Earth or their souls.  They will need your help."

Starfighter opened her mouth to say something, anything, when the tall column of rock behind the older Senshi caught her eye.  There was something about that but what…?  She narrowed her eyes and stepped past Cosmos.  Another, smaller, rock formation came into sight and a spark of ruby light blinked inside it.  Curiously she reached towards it but another hand intercepted her and its partner laid across the rock possessively.

"No."  No explanation was offered but Starfighter felt no inclination to protest.  Not when she saw the hand that lay on the rock begin to bleed.

Starhealer stepped forward.  "Serenity?"

Rose coloured lips curved into a smile.  The hand moved from the rock, a trail of golden sparks trailing in its wake, and it was displayed palm up.  Each Starlight looked at the perfectly healthy skin.  None spoke.  Slowly, silently, Starfighter took the hand holding her wrist and turned it over.  She had not been mistaken.  There it was, identical to the mark that now traced her second hand; a silver crescent-shaped scar.

"Go," Cosmos told her.  Confidence and anticipation seemed to flow from her.  

Starfighter hesitated a moment but her sisters did not.  Starmaker nodded.  "I will not be surprised to see you there Serenity."

Her smile grew a little.  "Cosmos cannot risk conflict on an inhabited world."

Starmaker's own lips twitched into a knowing smile.  "As I said _Serenity_, I will not be surprised."

Starhealer nodded, the beginnings of understanding in her pale green eyes, and Starfighter found herself being led away by her fellow Starlights.  She did not fight but nor did she leave without another glance back at the solitary Senshi.  In the single instant that her dark blue eyes lit upon the other Warrior the fey Senshi once more touched the slender pillar of rock.  At her touch the rock dissolved and a sword was revealed embedded in the rock, Sailor Cosmos' hand on the hilt.

Starfighter nodded to herself, finally understanding.  Her sisters had already become two balls of sparkling light and they shot towards the planet that even then was beginning to rise over the jagged horizon.  As her own power engulfed her in light she caught a final glimpse of her precious friend.  Her silver haired danced in a breeze that did not exist and her beautiful face was composed as she waited.  For what Starfighter was not sure but already it came.  Silver power rose from the Moon's centre in answer to a summons that had waited a thousand years to be made.  Then all she knew was music and magic and light and, in the end, Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that was how I found her, her crystal blade cradled within her arms.  She turned to me and once more I looked into those utterly unfathomable sapphire eyes and I knew then that she was beyond me.  She had grown past me, in those lost centuries, and I no longer understood the being that stood before me.  In those endless depths I found love and I gave it freely but it was not a mother's love I gave.  I looked upon her for the first time in a millennium and I could see myself in her visage yet there was nothing of me in her.  I did not know her.  She did not know me. 

_Mother and daughter.__  Queen and princess.  __Crystal__ bearer and Senshi.__  We were all of those._

_We were strangers._

_What we might have been to each other had forever been lost and it would never be recovered.  She felt no more for me than any of her sister Senshi.  I could see this and I saw that it hurt her.  It was if she were seeking a piece of herself in me and did not find it.  As for the piece of myself that was in her, it had changed beyond recognition and it was foreign to me._

_My choice ensured that she was prepared.  The Greater Kindred trained her and her partner was no less than Sailor Galaxia herself.  I lost that millennium with her, true, but was it a millennium I would have had otherwise?  Perhaps if she had stayed within my realm Earth would not have attacked and she and Endymion would have sealed our two nations in peace.  Or perhaps the __Dark__Kingdom__ would have assailed me and mine decades earlier and delivered death to us all.  Who am I to know what might have been?  _

_I lost her, yes, yet I can say this with utter certainty; because of my choice it was my daughter who was the hunter and Chaos that was the prey.  Is that worth what might have been?_

Perhaps but, as I have said before, who am I to judge?


	4. 4 of 8

The Choices We Make: part four

By Draegyn

_Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au_

(I don't own Sailor Moon)

Cosmos, is she what I would have become had I followed the path of a Senshi?  I think not, else Starseeker would never have surrendered me.  No, she is something special, something unique and never again will she be mine.  She had grown past my ability to comprehend her.

_I saw the same understanding in her eyes.  Then she set aside her winged staff, offering it to the concealed Prayer Pillar for safekeeping.  The blood-born rubies winked at me as she moved the sword aside.  No longer my child, was this enigmatic woman and never would she be again._

_As serving Senshi to her queen she genuflected._

_Within my soul I felt the crystal stir and reach for her.  It recognised her, I knew that instantly and, unlike myself, it welcomed her as its daughter in the manner I could not.  I watched as it woke the sleeping Senshi within and laid a veil across the Senshi of life.  I watched as she _changed_._

_Had I seen her thus in that first moment I would not have felt the way I did.  I would have been fooled as so many were.  No longer did she intimidate but that did not change the truth.  Beneath that façade laid Cosmos and that was a being who was too bright for my eyes._

_Not a word was spoken between us before she left.  No greetings, no words of love or even recriminations.  There was only that shared knowledge and, perhaps, regret.  Once more I watched as she departed.  We would meet again, even then I knew that, but that next time would be the last for at that time she would present my heir to me.  Then she would leave and nevermore return to the world of her birth._

_Once more I willingly stepped aside and watched her leave._

Once more I let her go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five figures stood together garbed in tried and tested armour, wise precautions with Senshi battling so close.  Kunzite stood beside his prince and they both watched the battle with faint amusement.  Or rather Endymion watched with amusement, Kunzite just felt much of the same never-ending weariness that had plagued him throughout his last four lifetimes.  Existence had become monotonous but he showed no sign of these emotions.  On the surface he was a man of ice much the way his prince was a man of stone.  Neither revealed to others anything they did not wish to but unlike his prince Kunzite felt the passing of time heavily.  

Almost as if he had read his general's mind, not an impossible occurrence, Endymion turned his head and his indigo-black eye met Kunzite's silver-blue.  Kunzite forced himself to hold that probing gaze.  The other man raised an eyebrow in silent question and Kunzite found that humour was not totally beyond him after all.

"That won't work on me Endy," he murmured, "And I'm not Venus to be inflamed by something so petty."

A smile made its way onto that cold face but that did not halt the insistent regard.  They stared at each other in silence, their fellows unaware of the interaction, and finally Endymion's expression softened.  As much as was possible for him to do so at any rate.  "You should not have accompanied me again my friend.  You have felt no desire for this world for more than ten lifetimes now.  Why do you persist in returning?  It cannot be that you fear true death."

Finally Kunzite's three fellow generals noticed the exchange.  They steadfastly refused to turn and intrude but the first of the quartet knew that they were listening… but not wondering.  They too knew the all-encompassing yearning for rest and the even stronger desire to see their prince find what he was searching for.  They knew and so the only question in their minds was how their superior would explain it to their liege.  

"You of all people are aware that none of us fear death Endymion.  In truth it has been so long that we would welcome it."

"Yet you continue to return with me.  Is it that you fear the judgement for the acts you have committed in my service?  Most, if not all, would label our deeds evil and us demons as the Senshi have already done.  "

Kunzite's lips curved further and his eyes lightened.  "You know as well as I my prince that it is not by the good or evil that we done with which we will be judged but by the intensity with which we lived."  He turned to look out at the park.  A magical battle raged there.  Had any been killed?  How many of their lives would be bright enough to stand them in good stead at judging?  

He turned back to the prince who regarded him.  The man he had served faithfully for a millennium. The man who he had followed through Hell.  The man who he would remain beside until he found that intangible unknown that he had spent his existence searching for.  It did not matter that mortal man was not intended to know death so intimately.  It did not matter that he was tired.  As long as his prince needed him he would remain.

Not for much longer though.  Something was coming.  It was not the power they had all felt come to Earth.  It was not on Earth, not yet.  But it was coming and Kunzite felt his time shortening.  Finally the end was coming and he had not one regret.  Not one.

His prince, even after all these years could believe that.  Familiarity allowed the general to read what no other ever had.  Did he resent sacrificing himself on the Moon?  No.  Did he repent breaking the laws of nature and forcing his way back to the world of the living?  No.  Did he feel remorse for the uncounted lives that had been ended by his hand?  No.  Did he wish that he had never known his prince?

Never. 

"No regrets Endymion," he promised softly, "Whatever comes, I would change nothing.  At your side I have lived and if that means that I am guilty of sinning then so be it."

Endymion turned back to the battle without another word but Kunzite knew the prince's thoughts.  They all did, they had been together so long.  They had begun merely guarding his body and now they guarded his soul.  Kunzite was not quite certain what they guarded it for, not even Endymion knew why he preserved that final portion of his humanity when he had easily discarded the rest.  It was not friendship or affection, as most would know it.  It went beyond even the kinship shared by the Senshi.  They were his generals.  He was their prince.  None analysed the bond, it simply was.  

They watched the Senshi fight one of their own in silence.  Kunzite even spared a thought to admire the skill the strange Senshi showed as she fought superior numbers.

"What is she?"  Zoisite broke the silence.  Kunzite did not know, his knowledge of Senshi was limited to those who named him enemy a thousand years before.  He glanced at his prince.  Before the ill-fated invasion of the Moon, when Endymion had first looked to the sky with conquest in mind he had learned all he could of those who would one day be his enemies.  Then, because instinct compelled him, he learned all he could of the entire Kindred, both greater and lesser.

Endymion answered.  "She is a Metal Senshi.  In the hierarchy they are Celestial Soldiers below the Asteroid Senshi.  This one is too powerful for her rank, she must be a cat's-paw."  

"For the other that unsettled the Senshi so thoroughly?" Jadeite inquired.

A malicious smirk grew on the prince's face.  "I would not be surprised," he admitted lightly, "As I told the Senshi themselves, things are going to get interesting.  And we, of course, will be here to enjoy the show."

"Will we help them?" Kunzite asked.  The Metal Senshi had somehow managed to separate Mercury from the other Senshi of the Lunarian court.  

"The Senshi?" Endymion lifted his eyebrow once more in sardonic amusement.

Nephrite murmured, "Which side?"

"Either, both." Kunzite did not care but they would need to decide.  For some reason they could not stay neutral in this war.

"Either way we decide would provide a wealth of opportunities," Zoisite noted, "Help the strangers and inflict a lot of pain on the Senshi we know.  Join Serenity's pets and they go crazy trying to unravel our motives."

Jadeite added, "Venus at the very least is already suspicious.  This could be an opportunity to drive her into unwise action or perhaps into fully fledge paranoia and after that…"  He trailed off and shrugged suggestively.

"Oh yes," the prince agreed with his generals but his mind was on the battle not their words.  "There are uncounted possibilities in the situation."  Kunzite followed his leader's eyes.

Mercury was unconscious on the ground and several creatures kept her sisters at bay while the strange Senshi bent over her.  Something shimmering began to rise from the Senshi of ice's chest and Kunzite frowned.  He could taste Mercury's magic in the air in spite of her condition and the levels of power were increasing.  What was happening?

"Gods above and below!" Jadeite exclaimed, "Who are they?"

  Kunzite's eyes narrowed.  Black Senshi battle leathers?  Skimpy things weren't they?  But then the same could be said of all Senshi uniforms.

"I do believe, my friends," Endymion suddenly drawled in a cold voice, "That my poor little planet has been graced with the presence of three of the Greater Kindred.  These illustrious Celestial Warriors are Starlight Senshi, no less.  I do wonder what we have done to merit such an honour."

"Perhaps the stranger with the wings and armour, hiding down there in the shadows has something to do with it," Nephrite commented, the urgency in his eyes belied his flippant tone of voice.  Kunzite glanced where he was directed and then blinked, unsure of his own eyes.  The impression the hidden one gave him was pure evil, a strange sensation for one such as he.  He glanced at his prince and noticed that Endymion had marked it also.  Their eyes met and a wordless understanding was shared.

The power.

Whoever the winged one was, she was the cause of the Senshi's distress.  She was the origin of the Metal Senshi's power and she was more depraved than they.  But nowhere near as dangerous.

"The Starlights are helping the Planetary Senshi but they cannot reach the Metal Soldier and Mercury," Zoisite commented almost regretfully.  Kunzite was not surprised, once upon a time the other man had regarded the little Senshi as the best opponent he had ever faced across a chess board.  He had never had such an interesting game since events prevented their matches and, if Mercury died in a few moments, he never would again.  Kunzite shook his head and then noticed that Endymion was no longer watching the battle.

He was looking up, his shadowed gaze seeing into the distant recesses of space.  His lean form was tense and Kunzite could feel the anticipation contained within him.  Indeed, he could feel it grow in himself.

"It's coming," he whispered unconsciously.

Endymion shook his head.  "No," he denied, "_She's_ already here."  

Kunzite watched in disbelief as his previously emotionless prince became a strictly disciplined mass of emotions too tangled for even the prince to understand.  For the first time in eons the silver-haired general saw life come into the other man as he stared at the battle, patient and rapt.

"Another one?" Zoisite uttered incredulously.

There was a flash of gold and silver but Kunzite did not see the new Senshi's arrival.  He was transfixed by the first true smile Endymion had ever given.  A abruptly as it appeared the smile vanished to be replaced by a terrible frown.  "Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite go to the Senshi's aid.  Free them from the spells that are threatening them.  Kunzite, with me!"  The orders were snapped out and not one of the generals even thought of disobeying.  Not waiting to see what his fellows did Kunzite followed in the prince's wake as, black cloak trailing, he virtually flew through the air towards the hidden stranger.  In the periphery of his vision a blurred white and gold form registered but then they were in the shadows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It watched as its slave stood over the little Senshi.  It could already taste the power of her starseed.  Then the ice Senshi would become a phage and that was something even more delicious to the being that was Chaos.   Dark lips set within a discoloured face smiled in vicious pleasure.  It did so enjoy when those rare time when it could torment Senshi vermin as they so richly deserved.  Their presumption in believing that they could challenge it!  None were a match for it.  Not the pawn that slaved for it nor the wretch it had possessed and she was supposed to be the most powerful of their wretched _Kindred_.

Bar one.  The smile turned into a snarl.  One day…  One day Cosmos would lie broken at its feet and then…

It felt the sting of pain at its neck.  Who would dare press a blade to it?  Who dared threaten it so? 

Dark eyes narrowed in rage and power of nightmarish strength began to gather.   Another power roused and it was the faster.  Chaos spun in shock, unmindful of the sword.  Dragon-like wings mantled and a man with silver hair was bludgeoned away.  Another, darker, man stepped forward in his place.  Blood red eyes pierced shadows to meet those of darkest blue and then power hurled it back into a tree.

Chaos shook its head.  The man was only mortal, where had that power come from?  His face covered by shadow and his voice like the frozen depths of space, he addressed Chaos.  "Whoever you are, whatever your purpose, you are on my world now.  You obey _me_."

It hissed.  The arrogance… "How dare you mortal…"  It was interrupted when tendrils of the man's magic twined around its throat and tightened.  

"I have no compunction about killing you," he told it calmly.  "In fact it might even by amusing.  However leaving you alive at this time will be more so.  Know this though, you are alive only by my sufferance.  Should you resent this then leave my planet.  As for the Senshi your pawn was weakening for you, they are my toys and I do not appreciate another trying to break them before I've finished with them.  Do you understand me?"

Confusion flitted through Chaos.  Did not all mortals worship Senshi?  Why then was this one behaving so… so much like itself?  It raised the chin of its stolen body and considered the man in cold calculation.  With a flick of power it broke the bindings that held it and hung in the air, its dragon wings extended.  "And if I were to propose an alliance between us?  Would you permit me to… share them with you?"

"Perhaps."  Three more men arrived and silently arrayed themselves behind the one who challenged Chaos.  The one who could be naught else but their master showed no sign of noticing.  A black rose appeared in his fingers and he began to twirl it idly.  "And who would I be allying myself to?"

Chaos smiled.  Its words were distinctly flavoured with satisfaction but it did not care. "Chaos."  The four lesser mortals did not understand the magnitude of what they had been told else why would they show no reaction?  If the final man knew of what it spoke then he did not show it.  Its smile vanished.  Were these mortals so ignorant?  Or was this more of what they termed bravado?

"Do you not know me?"

He of the shadows and darkness just twirled the rose and his subordinates followed his example.  The silence grew heavier as none answered.  Anger began to rise within the being.  What was this man playing at?  Galaxia's power roused and then men shuffled.  Vindictiveness danced at the edges of Chaos' mind and it bared its teeth.  They were playing a very dangerous game and that intrigued it.  Never before had any possessed the gall, not even Cosmos.  This man, however, was not Cosmos.

"Go."

It started.  He dared to command it?  The danger increased with each moment.  One more provocation and Chaos would ignore the potential this man possessed for its plans.  One more and it would destroy the insignificant microbes where they stood…

Endymion fingers stilled and walked into the light.  His eyes were dead and yet simultaneously alive with power.  Chaos paused.  Endymion continued, his will plain to see and equally as undeniable.  "I will consider your offer but until then the Senshi are off limits."

A cry came from the distance along with a flash of silver light.  A new Senshi had come.  One that had never been seen before and her strength could be felt by even the mortals.  Chaos flinched visibly as the loss of Tin Nyanko reverberated through it.  Yet it did not look away from the prince.  "Who are you?" it demanded, "Who would dare to command me?"  It bared its true power, the way a dog would bare its teeth in threat, and Galaxia's stolen power was a mote when compared to the raw entropy that had possessed her.

The scent of death began to pervade the area but Endymion's expression did not change.  Chaos narrowed its eyes, what was he summoning?  It did not understand and a part of it feared.  Only Cosmos had ever stirred such emotion in it before yet it understood the Senshi.  She was powerful but she was also weak and although there was something about her that fascinated it Chaos did not doubt that it could defeat her, it just wanted more than that.  This man was different though.  There was something in him that Chaos had found in no other living being in all of its memory.  It needed to know what that was before it would crush it.  Perhaps it would be the one who could deliver the Sailor Cosmos alive into its grasp.

Slowly it bowed.  "As you wish," it acceded and then its eyes hardened further.  "But do not wait too long mortal.  You will not like what happens if you do."  With a clap of its wings Chaos vanished.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like an angel, she floated to the ground, her wings of pure white framing her slender form.  Golden tresses spilled in two falls from round buns atop her head, the crescent insignia on her brow glittered and two perfect sapphire eyes welled with a mixture of sorrow and hope as she carried her sister with her.  

Sailor Moon carefully withdrew her sword from the Lesser Senshi's body.  Light glared along her blade and as the last inch left Tin Nyanko's torso the brightness engulfed the fallen Senshi.  The last sight of her that met Sailor Moon's eyes was her peaceful face and then she was gone, leaving only a small pile of starseeds and a single black crystal.  Sailor Moon nodded to herself and the crystal levitated off the ground and floated to her waiting hand.  She examined it carefully and then concealed it within her magic.  When she finally caught up with Chaos she would retrieve the young Senshi's starseed and release her from the crystal stasis.

A tingle of magic coursed through her and she smiled as she saw the Senshi approaching her.  Her smile faltered a little when they were close enough for her to see the awe in their faces.  Resolutely she projected the personal magnetism that her teachers had assured her she possessed and attempted to charm them out of their intimidating veneration of her.

The Starlight Senshi knew her immediately and she would have expected no less from her companions of a decade but the other Senshi, the Lesser Senshi, they too knew her identity.  She bore the crystal sword.  There was only one soul that she could possibly be.

One by one they arrayed themselves around her and, while the Starlights looked on impassively, they knelt.  Moon immediately stepped to the nearest, Mercury who was still recovering from the shock of almost losing her starseed, and pulled her to her feet.

"Please don't," she begged them, "Please, you do not need to do this for me.  I am like you.  I am Senshi, your sister.  No more."

"No more?" the ice-scented Soldier in her grasp whispered incredulously, "No more?  Oh princess you are far more than merely a Senshi.  You are…"

Moon placed a gloved finger against the other's lips.  "I am Moon, never more than that," she warned more harshly than she had intended.  Mercury was taken aback at her vehemence and she smiled apologetically.  "Greater Kindred or Lesser, the only true division between them is power not importance never forget that, no matter what may come…"

"But princess…" protested the Senshi within whom a living flame raged.  

Sailor Moon shook her head.  "There is much you need to learn of my enemy who has now made itself yours and I will tell you all but you must remember that I am solely Sailor Moon."

"So you are Serenity," an ageless Soldier murmured.  Sapphire eyes met magenta and recognition flowed into both.

"Pluto," Moon greeted and, shocking all bar Starfighter, she embraced the Senshi of time.

"It has been a long time princess," a woman accustomed to no emotion said in a voice choked with tears.  "A very long time."

Moon pulled back and stared at the one she held.  In her eyes the Senshi of the Moon saw the centuries of vigil at the Gates of Time with only Saturn as a companion.  She saw the renewal of hostilities between the Senshi and a Terran prince each time he woke into life once more.  She saw a man with searching indigo eyes and power enough to defeat death and she felt the flow of fate whirl around her.

"Before I depart, the Gates in the realm of Limbo shall be closed," she declared softly and her gaze sought out the shadowed purple orbs of the Senshi of death.  "Both those of Time and Space and those between Life and Death."  She stepped away from Pluto and regarded all of her mother's Senshi.  "And this war between you and Earth's prince will end."

"But," an exquisite blonde burst out immediately.  Moon focused on her and the other blonde gasped at the sudden scrutiny yet she persevered.  "Endymion is evil, complete and utter evil."

"And yet it was his liegemen that enabled you to capture the phages you battled."

She blinked, her light blue eyes utterly blank.  "What… what do you mean?"

Moon frowned, her power as Cosmos was still a part of her yet it was not that which had enabled her to sense the hidden warriors.  Why could her sisters not feel it like she?  "Their power did not register with you?  At all?" she questioned uncertainly.  "There were three, one who burned with flames much as does Mars, one of reeked of illusion and a final who sounded of starsong."

"Zoisite, Jadeite and Nephrite," a tall Soldier who smelled of trees muttered in confirmation.  Her emerald eyes glittered surprise.  "They helped us?  And Endymion let them?"  

"It is not possible," the blonde announced firmly, "Endymion would like nothing better than us dead.  He would never allow the generals to help us."

Moon did not argue she merely smiled.  Deny it how she would, the blonde, Venus, would soon be forced to accept the truth.  "So his name is Endymion," she murmured aloud.

"Princess, what of the creatures we fought?"

Moon blinked and glanced at the phages tangled in a web of golden plasma.  "They are phages… Uranus?" she explained and inquired simultaneously.  The tall Senshi who had spoken nodded and Moon continued.  "And I will tend to them in a moment, until then their bindings are secure."

She looked away from all of the Senshi then, off to the side where a grove of trees drew her.  Her heart began to beat faster and once more she felt fate and destiny dance around her.  "You may reveal yourself now."  When she called out she showed none of her turmoil but he who answered felt it anyway.  Just as she could see the hidden currents within him.  

There were cries of outrage behind her and even Pluto raised her staff in menace as the five men appeared from the darkness.  Venus' golden chain uncoiled and began to lash out at the party but Moon flicked it away with a touch of power.  

He knew this and smiled.

There were five men, those of fire, illusion and stars that she had detected before along with a fourth who radiated ice but it was the fifth that held her.  He mesmerised her as she did him.  Their eyes caught and held.  Eternity passed within those depths.  There was so much pain and it was of such strength that it swept the passages of his thoughts bare.  How could he endure that?  The trivialities that others gathered to make existence more bearable were absent from him, his mind and soul was pared down to pure thought and he did not have even the option of insanity as a retreat.

It was no wonder that he had become what he had.  It was no wonder that he had done what he had.  It was no wonder he saw through her silver exterior and saw the roiling golden power underneath.  Nothing about him surprised her.

She saw him smile and she forced herself not to touch him, not to trace the curve of his lips or the line of his jaw.  She knew he saw the teeming life inside of her and held only by the crystal cage of her mind.  So different from him, she was full waiting, he was empty and searching.

Behind her only the Starlights prevented the Moon queen's Senshi from erupting into violence, but then, they knew her and trusted her perception.  The Lesser Senshi had yet to truly understand that it was Sailor Moon who was the illusion and Sailor Cosmos who was the reality.  They had not seen her as Cosmos and so she did not condemn them for their blindness.  Her mother had taught her that such ignorance might be preferable.

But he had never seen.  He knew and he did not fear her.

"You and yours have my gratitude," she told him.  Her eyes flicked to the three she had sensed with the Senshi, "If you noble warriors had not aided my sisters the phages would be dead now with no chance of restoration to their original forms and Sailor Tin Nyanko would have no hope for a future."

"You can heal them?" the warrior of fire, Zoisite, asked.

"Once their starseeds are returned to them it will be as nothing happened."

Their eyes flicked behind her to the small pile of starseeds.  The hostility behind her grew in intensity as the Planetary Senshi misconstrued the generals' interest.  She felt the stir in the Senshi as one of them immediately knelt down to retrieve the precious objects.  

Her gaze returned to the prince's.  He had never stopped looking at her but now the examination was that of a man who saw a woman he desired.  Colour gathered in her cheeks as his eyes raked over her in her revealing Senshi's fuku.  Unconsciously she returned the feminine equivalent of his inspection and blushed further.  By any standard he was exceptional and the currents of fate and destiny had become as undeniable as the tide.

When was the last time a man had shown interest in her when he knew what she was?  

When was the last time that _she_ had felt such interest in return?

Consternation began to mingle with fear and anger in the minds of the Soldiers behind her.  She could virtually taste it but it was inconsequential.  Soon she would move to appease them but there was more that needed to be said.

"What you have done, Endymion, can never be repaid."

"Repaid?  More like atoned for," one behind her muttered in ignorance.

Endymion's lips curved into a smile.  He knew of what she spoke.  

"They were not prepared for the one you sent away.  My sisters would have died by its hands had you not intervened," she continued for the Senshi's benefit.

"I did not do it to help them," he spoke.  

It was the first time he had spoken and she found herself staring at his lips.  What was wrong with her?  She forced herself to concentrate.  "Perhaps not but that does not alter the deed."

"Then it follows that you are indebted to me."  His eyes darkened almost to black with something other than anger.

"Perhaps," she whispered.  An intangible _something_ sparked between them.  The Senshi behind her surged forth, ignoring the Starlights, and attempted to interpose themselves between the two.

The prince was the faster.  Instead of being pulled away from him she found herself in his arms, held close to his body.  "It seems that your _sisters_," he sneered the word quietly, "Would prefer it if you did not trust me."  His warm breath caressed her ear and she felt herself pressing even closer to him.

"I make my own judgements," she murmured back, breathing in his musky scent and then she stepped away.  Without a protest his arms fell away from her but that did not mean he had released her willingly.  "We will meet again," she promised him, hoping to lighten some of the darkness.

"Never doubt it," he told her intently.  With a single dismissive glance at the Senshi and a last, lingering look at her he faded back into the shadows, his loyal companions, as ever, at his side.

"What do you think you were doing?" Venus demanded angrily, "He's dangerous…"

"And so am I!" Moon whirled on them, he sapphire eyes blazing.  "I have been Senshi longer than any of you, only Pluto was sworn in before me.  I am more than you know, more than any bar your queen will ever realise."  Why had it only stung slightly when she acknowledged that her mother was not her queen?  An hour ago it would have been agony to admit it.  Could it be because the missing part of her had never been concealed within a silver-haired queen rather instead a raven-haired prince?

Her attempts to court camaraderie with them were failing and her last words had hastened the effect.  She softened and said, more to herself then to them, "For centuries you have been locked in an endless cycle of violence with him.  How did you ever expect to break free of it if you did not comprehend him?"

She searched their faces for a hint of understanding.  Fire, ice, storm, sea and wind showed her nothing.  Eyes of magenta, purple and azure were blank and the pale green and rich brown of her Starlights were sympathetic.  Only in an ocean blue gaze did she find the understanding she sought.  She met Starfighter's eyes and the unspoken awareness of the meddling of fate and destiny was exchanged between them.

Moon was afraid, never before had she been caught in such a torrent but never before had she felt so close to achieving true peace.  It had nothing to do with Chaos and ending the interminable chase and everything to do with a depraved prince given to shadow and darkness.  She feared but Starfighter's expression reassured her.  Whatever came, the Senshi would be beside her.

"Come," she said, breaking the silence.  "I will show you how to restore a phage."

She turned her mind to her task and to once more setting the Planetary Senshi at ease. Yet, deep inside her, where not even she could see, a small but essential part of her being began to count the moments until she next saw those bewitching indigo eyes once more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And so was her first meeting with Endymion ended.  I wonder at the bond that formed between them, even before each laid eyes upon the other.  They knew that their lives would change profoundly because of their meeting and they knew that even before that meeting.  A part of me is helpless to prevent my anger and fate and destiny for drawing them together as was done.  For all my questions and, yes, even sympathy for Endymion I have never and will never believe him worthy of her.  However I forfeited the right to protest her choice in companions.

_But was it a choice on her part?  Or even on his?  Or had fate and destiny so ensnared them amongst their threads that not the even the most world-altering decision could stop their meeting?_

_Both were beyond me.  I could look into his past and pity him for the trials he was forced to undergo but I could not bring myself to look at his subsequent actions as anything but those of an angry and bitter madman.  I could see past her seeming of humanity to both the almost divine blood of her sire the role she had been born into and the power but did not know what I saw.  _

_He looked at her once and knew.  _

_She looked at him once and understood._

_I felt the shock of that first encounter even on the moon.  The Ginzuishou sang with the force of it and however much I did not like it I knew I had no choice in what would come. _

_Together everything changed for them.  I might have let her go, willingly or not, but he never would.  It seems that destiny or fate or both were madly at work to repair something I had unknowingly destroyed.   _


	5. 5 of 8

The Choices We Make: part five

By Draegyn

_Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au_

In the years after I gave my daughter to my sisters to raise a strange mentality grew and eventually became prevalent among my people.  They began to view their absent princess as a saviour, a messiah, rather than a flesh and blood woman.  I realise now how close to truth that philosophy became.  Yet that did not aid my Senshi when they found they must associate with the reality.  They grew up on legends of the mysterious princess who was Cosmos and yet was Moon as well.  She was the most powerful Senshi in existence and yet she was still one of them.  They were not expecting the woman she had become.

_What should they have done when it Endymion made his interest in Serenity known?  Or, even more shocking, when it was plain that she returned that interest? _

_How could they trust her then?  From their perspective his conduct during the attack mislead her and then he seduced her with his looks the first moment she saw him.  How were they to know that she saw further and more clearly than they could even imagine? That by doing so she saw him in a way that we would not believe possible?_

_They could not and did not and so a wedge was driven between them.  Perhaps they could have been friends if things had been different.  Maybe they could have been more to each than simply sister Senshi.  My daughter loved them, never doubt that, but with them she never found the camaraderie that she might otherwise have had circumstances been different.  Could it have been otherwise? Could the bond between them have become something more?  _

Perhaps but it is yet another thing that will never be known now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hino Rei was silent as she and her fellow Senshi strode down the street, or rather, as they meandered down the street.  Serenity's antics were in no way conductive towards haste.  Indeed, for all of the energy and quickness with which she moved the group was making progress at only a snail's pace.  Violet eyes gazed at the blonde as she bounced, _bounced_, from shop window to shop window, inspecting the displayed merchandise with almost feverish determination.  And while she and the other local Senshi watched in bafflement, the Starlights only spurred the… the… _air headed_ princess on further!

"Sere!  Come look at this!" the black-haired Starlight yelled.

There was a blond and white blur and soon a second face was pressed against the glass window of a pet shop.  "Oooh!  Seiya they're so gorgeous!"

"They're kittens aren't they?" the grey-haired Starlight asked as she joined the gawking pair.

Rei frowned, perplexed.  She could hardly question the competence of any of the Greater Senshi that had come to help them.  They had amply proven both their courage and their skill in the short skirmish but since then none had behaved in the way she believed any Senshi, must less a Celestial Warrior, should.

She could understand their desire to dress as civilians.  She could understand the need for Terran names.  She could even understand the Starlights masquerading as males.  Uranus did the same whenever she was required to pose as 'Ten'ou Haruka'.   She had to admit that so far they had drawn no negative attention to themselves, although it had become more than a little irritating when the four newcomers drew so many admiring glances from both men and women.  Yes, creating aliases on Earth might be necessary, after all who knew how long the enemy would remain a threat?  Yet she could not understand why not one of the four was taking anything seriously.

Why were they all behaving as if nothing was wrong?  Even the short altercation that had happened earlier was more than enough to let the Senshi know that their enemy was dangerous.  That both Pluto and Saturn's instincts told them it was more deadly than even Endymion had scared Rei and Serenity and her companions had said nothing to deny it.  

Then there was Endymion himself.    Rei was the Senshi of Mars and yet that man could make her hesitate.  There was something stirring between him and Serenity and the intensity of it was felt by everything.  For a moment in the park when the two had faced each other the world had paused.  Minako might complain bitterly about the prince but Rei wonder if it would make a difference in the end. Could anything they say sway her?  She may be playing at being human and concealing her true power behind the mask of Sailor Moon but Serenity was Cosmos and it would behove them all to remember that.

"Well Mina-chan, it seems that you ladies have some new friends.  Would you care to introduce us?"  

Rei flinched and whirled simultaneously.  How could she not have noticed his approach?  How could she have remained blind to the pervading stench of the grave that surrounded him?  Jin's green eyes met hers in amusement and reminded her of what she should never have forgotten.  

Death came on silent wings.

Endymion had arrived.

Rei braced herself.  Death would find that its prey would not go peacefully, especially not when such a precious soul was present and under her protection.  Before she or even Minako could reply another broke in.  

"I don't think she likes you calling her Mina-chan," a sweet voice chirped.  Prince, Senshi and generals alike turned to face the slender blonde.  For an instant the sun hit the glass window behind her and she dissolved into light.  Then the glared died away and once more a young woman with two golden blonde rivers of hair, each falling from a round bun, was staring at them with a thoughtful frown.  "I think it's supposed to be Aino-san isn't it?  Or should it be Minako-san?  I'm not sure, I'm afraid I learned the language in something of a rush."

The ebon-haired man bowed mockingly to a furious Minako.  "Of course.  My apologies Aino-san.  Please forgive my atrocious manners."  He did not wait for her to even acknowledge his words before he returned his regard to Serenity and Rei watched warily.  Minako looked as if she were tinder ready to explode into flame and all of the inner Senshi were aware that the prince was more than capable of providing the necessary spark.  Then there was the way that he was eyeing her princess.  It made Rei more than a little nervous but there was nothing she could do without Serenity's express permission.  A permission that would, most likely, never be forthcoming.

The forbidding man stepped past the Senshi towards his blonde target.  "I am Chiba Mamoru, Odango Atama.  Perhaps you would care to make the introductions as I do not believe Aino-san wishes to speak to me."  He gently took her hand and began to raise it to his lips when Haruka snatched at his shoulder and wrenched him back.

The sandy-haired Senshi snarled, "Her name is Serenity, scum.  Remember it!"

Power rose in a flood, freezing the Senshi where they stood.  Mamoru's eye flicked to the princess' and for a moment he stared at her, not noticing when Kai pried Haruka's fingers from the green jacket that the prince was wearing.

"Serenity?" He lifted his eyebrow and deliberately raked the blonde with his eyes.  "Serenity?" he repeated scornfully, not bothering to turn and face the Senshi.  "I think not," he murmured and arrogantly stalked around the woman in question.  "She reminds me of a bunny, don't you little Usagi?  Usako?"

"What?!" there were several cries of outrage at this but the prince's spell held strong and they could not act on their dismay.  

Rei fought the spell sullenly when the woman who was Starfighter caught her eyes.  She ignored the prompting for patience held within the blue gaze.  How dare he?  Defiler!  For the first time she truly understood why Minako loathed him so absolutely.  He was not content to merely be evil he enjoyed flaunting it as well.  She had known that for centuries but only now did it spark true hatred within her.  The princess was not a part of their war.  She was the epitome of all that was pure and good yet he did not scruple to use her.  More powerful she might be but Serenity could not possible know the mind behind the fair face.  If she did she would never consent to associate with him, let alone treat with him so familiarly.  

 "Don't worry," the delicate blonde commanded and smiled.  It was as if the sun had risen with that smile and Rei found it impossible to shake of the endless magnetism that she had no doubt the princess was deliberately radiating.  "I don't mind.  Mamo-chan can call me Usagi if he wants to."

A wave of disbelief swept over the Senshi and Rei allowed herself to succumb.  Even Mamoru's generals showed surprise at what the princess of the Moon Kingdom had decided to call their prince.  Mamo-chan?  How could anyone give the dark prince such an intimate nickname?  Why would anyone?

Mamoru did not even blink.  "Not Usagi, that is what _they_ may call you if you wish," he insisted.  

His hand lifted and softly began to stroke her cheek.  Haruka growled again but it was in vain, Mamoru had gained the upper hand and his spell ensured that he kept it.  Not even they, the Senshi, could break free of their arcane bonds.  

Mamoru did not look away from Serenity but Rei felt a touch of malicious amusement in the magic that held her.  "To me you are Usako."

She smiled at him and caught his hand against her cheek in one of her own.  For an endless moment they did nothing other than stare at each other.  Rei watched the frozen tableau helplessly.  She wanted to do something, anything!  She could not bear to see her beloved queen's daughter so endanger herself.  Why could she not see the evil in him?

Then Serenity frowned and drew her hand away from her cheek so she could examine it.  "You are the one attempted to steal my sword?  It is your blood the rubies were created from?"

Rei blinked.  How had she known?  Did this mean she finally understood what Rei longed to tell her?  She could not trust him.

Mamoru merely turned her hand over and traced a line on her palm.  Usagi smiled gently.  "That has been there since I was three days old."

"Oh?" he asked.

She nodded slightly.  "It was formed when my mother ran my hand down the blade and consecrated me as the Moon's Senshi."

Rei finally realised what they were referring to, the scars that both bore were from the same weapon.  They had been created in slightly different circumstances, his when he attempted to use the sword to kill a queen and she when sworn to serve that same queen but through centuries and lifetimes they had remained.

His fingers stilled and he met her sapphire eyes intently.  His very silence bespoke danger but Serenity was unconcerned.  She continued almost absently, "The sword was originally created to protect the Moon princess… me but events did not pass as planned and it was decided that I was to wield it."  Of her own accord she held her other hand palm up for his inspection.  "This was made several hours ago when the blade tested me and recognised my taste.

She reached for his other hand and Rei could not decipher the expression in her eyes when she looked up.  Slowly his fingers began to stroke own again, rhythmically massaging the skin of her palms.  "Two scars for me, two scars for you," she told him, "There is power in that.  A tie to bind us together."

"It is nothing compared to that which already exists."

Rei was not the only Senshi that glared.  

Jin snickered and Mamoru turned.  His eyes flicked over the motionless Senshi, a not so small sneer in their shadowed depths.  A small smirk appeared for a moment before his customary stone façade returned but, before he could act on whatever twisted whim had struck him, a delicate hand touched his shoulder.

"Who are your friends Mamo-chan?" Serenity asked.  For a moment Rei wondered if her princess could read the prince as Rei could not but then dismissed the thought as useless fancy.  If Usagi could see past the man's impenetrable mask then she would have banished him.  The empty darkness that the human shell concealed was not something that even Cosmos could accept easily.

Whatever maliciousness he might have been planning vanished like smoke and he looked at the slender blonde beside him with an expression in his eyes that Rei could not decipher.  It could not possibly be affection… could it?

Of course not!  Not even his generals had the power to touch his heart.  He was incapable of true emotion.  A thousand years she had guarded the world against him and never once had she seen anything from aside from the rare display of annoyance.  He might have cheated death but his soul had not and it was long since dead.

Whether in affection or simply to deceive her further, Mamoru answered her question.  "The one with silver hair and icy eyes is Tatsuo Kai." Mamoru motioned at the man in question and then drew the princess closer to him so he could murmur something in her ear.  Rei gritted her teeth at his casual manhandling of the blonde but she was still incapable of acting.

Serenity nodded and moved away a little, although the man's arm remained over her shoulder.  "It is an honour to meet you Tatsuo-san."

Kai's lips twitched and his icy pretence cracked for a moment.  "I do believe that you are the first to honestly claim that it is an honour Serenity-hime."

Serenity rolled her eyes and Rei watched blankly as she treated the general as if he were an old acquaintance.  They had not been given the opportunity to inform Serenity of the history of any of these men but surely she could sense echoes of some of the atrocities they had committed?  Mamoru might have lulled her into false security but surely the generals had not done so as well?

"Just Usagi-chan, Tatsuo-san."

Kai raised an eyebrow in a manner acquired from his prince.  "Oh?  But are you not a princess?  You are Queen Serenity's daughter, yes?  That would make you a princess."

The blonde princess' eyes were sad as she answered.  "Technically I guess but please, just let me be Usagi now."

Rei did not understand.  Was the princess not proud of her heritage?  Or was it that she regretted the need for her to be raised away from her mother?  Possibly could she even perceive it as abandonment and resent the queen?  No, Rei could not believe that the last was the answer but then why did Serenity seem to feel uncomfortable with her position among her people?

"As you wish Usagi-chan."

"The blonde with the short hair is Saori Jin and the one with the ponytail is Samidurai Zairen." Mamoru continued indicating each man in turn.  Both Zairen and Jin nodded.  "The last is Acoma Neko."  Once more he bent to whisper in her ear and Rei was startled when a small breeze carried a soft name over.  "Nephrite."  He was introducing them to her by their true names!

Serenity's nose scrunched slightly as the brunette man nodded at her.  "Neko?  But isn't that a cat?"

Neko smiled slightly.  "I can see in the dark Usagi-chan."

Her frown did not ease and Rei saw the amusement in Mamoru as he watched the byplay.  "I don't understand," the blonde protested, "Why's that so important?"

"It's not something most humans can do," Neko explained patiently.

"It's not?"

Neko shook his head seriously but his brown eyes were amused when they met his prince's over her head.  "Usagi my prince?  I don't think so."  He addressed the princess again, "No, my curious, little Koneko, it is not normal for most humans to see in the dark but then none here are normal and some I would guess are not even human."  He looked pointedly at the spot where two of the disguised Starlights stood.  Rei was not the only one surprised when, with a whisper of power too quick to identify, the two Senshi broke free of the spell.  Mamoru's eyes narrowed at what appeared to be a black-haired boy that bore a great resemblance to himself and then his gaze moved back to Usagi where he blinked and nodded to himself.

Seiya stepped forward and while her manner could not be called friendly it was decidedly more approachable then the Planetary Senshi's suspicious hostility.  "I'm Kou Seiya.  My brother here his Yaten and the one near… Michiru?  Is that what you call yourself here Ne…  lady of the Sea?"  He did not wait for answer that the disguised Neptune would never give, but continued regardless, "He's Taiki."

"He?" Jin drawled scornfully.

Taiki responded just as contemptuously, "One must often manipulate one's appearance to foster certain assumptions that may be beneficial.  I would have thought that you had the intelligence to have realised this o'king of illusion."

"Taiki," Seiya said repressively and the brunette Starlight fell silent.  Seiya turned to Usagi and paused a moment.  Her lips twitched before she said seriously, "'Odango' we should be going.  The ladies here need to be enlightened as to their unwelcome visitor and we need to plan."

One golden eyebrow moved slightly before she nodded.  "I know my friend."  She turned back to Mamoru and smiled brightly at him.  "I'm sorry Mamo-chan but Seiya's right.  We have to go.  I don't suppose you would release the rest of my friends now?"

"You're asking?" he exclaimed in mock surprise.

She nodded primly.  "It is impolite to break another's spell abruptly."

His eyebrow rose and for a moment the shadows in his eyes lightened.  "That did not stop you before," he commented wryly.  She simply sniffed delicately and ignored his aspersions, which caused him to smirk.  Then he glanced at the Senshi who were all glaring daggers at him and grunted.  "Must I Usako?  You aren't aware of how annoying they can be yet."

Serenity rolled her eyes at him.  "I'm sure they would love to say something similar about you.  Besides I know full well that you find them amusing rather than annoying."  Rei was not the only one present who could hear the grinding of teeth.  She glanced at Minako in sympathy, her instinctive respect for the princess had won over her irritation but that did not make Mamoru's snide remarks easier to bear.

"True," the dark prince sighed and without a word the bindings of power faded away.

Immediately Haruka and Makoto began to herd the princess away from her sinister companion.  The Starlights bowed slightly at men and then followed the three silently.  Rei trotted in their wake while Ami and Hotaru, Saturn's alias, dragged Minako after the departing group behind her.  No doubt the sullen blonde would love to get her claws into the Terran but not even her Senshi powers were going to keep her from developing an ulcer if she continued in this manner.

"We will meet again later Usako!" Mamoru's slightly mocking voice called.

Rei ran into Taiki when she stopped and suddenly stepped back.  The Senshi of fire spat out her sister's brown hair and turned to see Serenity pushing through the Senshi.  "Later Mamo-chan?" she called out.

Michiru attempted to stop her but the princess shrugged her away gently.  "They need to know this as much as you do," she insisted.  Rei had an intuition of what she meant and the blonde's next words confirmed it.  "Why don't you all come with us?  We're going to get something to eat and catch up on old times.  Gossip and stuff like that."

"I'm sure Mamoru-san would not enjoy listening to so many females," Rei said in a futile attempt to dissuade her princess.

"On the contrary, Rei-san," he murmured as he strolled into their midst.  "I would very much enjoy listening to you all."

Damn!  However she was not willing to concede a total victory.  Quickly she interposed herself between the prince and the princess and manoeuvred her princess away from him.  She drowned the blonde's protests under a deluge of information, elaborating on anything that caught her fancy while she kept a wary eye on Mamoru.  Serenity did not seem to mind being waylaid and with eight unfriendly Senshi prepared to fall upon him like wolves not even he dared to press the issue.

Last time they had been caught unaware.  Never again.  And if it was the last thing they would do they would ensure that Serenity was safe from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Chaos' purpose seems to be little more than aimless destruction," Taiki told the large group.  The warriors where scattered throughout a room in the shrine Rei ran. Usagi was pinned between Minako and Setsuna to keep Mamoru away from her and they were all finishing off the meal that Rei and Makoto had created between them.  "By the theft of a Senshi's starseed it can either turn said Senshi against her sisters or simply murder her.  It gains power through such thefts…"

"So if it's so powerful then why hasn't it taken over the universe?" Zaire asked.

Usagi savoured the last bite of her chocolate dessert and then put the spoon down with a sigh.  "For all of its power Chaos is crippled," she answered, "In this universe all existence is created from a balance between chaos and order.  Chaos does not have that balance…"

"And Cosmos does," Seiya finished soberly.  Her ocean-blue eyes were affectionate as she looked at Usagi.  "Cosmos's soul is a frame made of crystal and within that frame she teems with life.  Now what else is crystal but the ultimate physical example of order?  And is not life chaos?" the dark-haired woman asked rhetorically.  "She possesses more power than any Senshi before her and Chaos fears her."

"It's also obsessed with her," Yaten noted in disgust.  Usagi's cheer faded further at the reminder.  Yaten's voice became obnoxiously cheerful.  "Buck up Odango, it's a good thing in the long run."  The green-eyed woman looked at her audience seriously.  "If it weren't for its utter dedication to seeing Cosmos on her knees before it then the universe would most likely have been destroyed centuries ago."

"Cosmos refuses to make sacrifices," Seiya explained.

Usagi was stricken.  Surely they did not truly believe that the end justified the means.  "Kinmoku and Kakyuu exist because that is so!" she snapped sharply.  

"We know.  If we did now agree then we would not be here."  Seiya looked at her reproachfully and she felt remorse build.  How could she have doubted?  

"So many worlds have died because of this war," she murmured in sorrow.  That was why she doubted.  Because she could never be certain that she had helped matters rather than hindered.

"And so many reborn anew," Seiya reminded her.

Usagi could not bring herself to meet her friend's eyes.  She _could_ have ended this war centuries ago and then so many worlds would never have been damaged but the price had been unacceptable to her.  It seemed that no matter what road she chose to travel innocents would be killed.  What was the good of the Senshi of life if all that she left in her wake was death?

"Princess?" 

Usagi looked at Setsuna unhappily.  "It's the reason that it's been drawn out for so long," she said quietly.  She swept her gaze across the gathering and forced each to meet her eyes.  "Do any of you even have an inkling of the kind of power that would be released if Chaos and Cosmos were to battle?"  None of them judged her but neither could they absolve her.  Only when she met Mamoru's intense stare did she feel some ease.  It was unnecessary, she knew that, but she tried to justify herself to him.  "Every time such a battle happens and Cosmos looks to be gaining the upper hand Chaos would ring the death knells of a world or even an entire solar system and Cosmos would be obligated to undo the damage while her enemy fled.  A thousand years this has been happening.  Do you have any idea how long that is?"

"We all understand," Kai answered quietly and Usagi frowned suddenly.  Her eyes darted from prince to general in startled comprehension.  Empathy for the weary man rose in her.  Duty drove them hard but for both of them the heart was by far the harsher taskmaster.  

"Only a thousand years?" Ami asked.  

Usagi looked at her in confusion for a moment and then understanding came.  The Senshi wars had never reached this far.  The Senshi of the Moon Kingdom were ignorant of its history and causes.  "The origins of the being known as Chaos are far older than that," she told the other woman.  "Chaos was a part of the primal fabric of the universe, an unseen but very much felt force of nature.  However when Order was given a way to physically manifest itself Chaos attempted the same but where Order did so in the form of an inanimate object Chaos attempted to do so as a living being.  It went mad."

Minako frowned.  "I don't understand.  Why?"

"No balance," Seiya reminded her.  "And that causes madness."

"What about Order then?" Jin asked.

Mamoru blinked and Usagi saw the knowledge in his eyes.  She smiled in confirmation.  "The Ginzuishou," he said.

For a moment the Senshi scowled at him out of reflex and then they realised what he had revealed.  "The Crystal!" several of them exclaimed in shock.

"Well," Makoto said after a moment's thought, "Considering how powerful it is we're lucky that it didn't try the same thing as Chaos.  Could you imagine what it would be like in human form?"

Usagi kept silent.  None but she needed to know that such an occurrence was not only possible but also a reality.  Once more Mamoru's eyes probed hers and once more he understood what she had not said.  This time, however, he did not speak his findings aloud.  That would come later she saw, when he had the opportunity to isolate her mother.  Usagi pitied the queen but found her sympathies in question.  He saw that as well and took a gloating pleasure in it.

"As I was saying," Usagi spoke quickly, attempting to distract him.  The dark prince in such a mood might not repel her as it did the Planetary Senshi but that did not mean that she liked it.  "Chaos has been around since the beginning of time but it was only a thousand years past that it began stealing starseeds and turning Senshi against Senshi.  There was war."

"It was only because of Cosmos that so many of the Kindred were saved," Yaten said grimly.  "She and Galaxia fought side by side until only Chaos remained.  Unfortunately Chaos was unwilling to concede defeat.  Rather than face Cosmos it possessed Galaxia's body and fled."

"And for the last thousand years it has led her a merry chase across the universe," Taiki added, "Ten years ago it brought the hunt to our world and everything was almost destroyed in the battle that followed.  Our princess was killed and most of our system was devastated.  Only Cosmos' arrival and Chaos' subsequent departure saved us."

"Then she returned Kakyuu to life," Seiya whispered, "And restored Kinmoku.  We swore to stay be her side until the threat that Chaos posed was ended."

Usagi smiled gratefully at the trio and then sobered.  "While it is on Earth there's nothing we can do about it."

"We need to get it off-world so you can deal with it," Hotaru agreed emphatically.

Taiki shook her head.  "It was watching the battle wasn't it?  Then it knows we're here."  She motioned to herself and her fellow Starlights.  "It knows us and it knows that we follow in Cosmos' wake.  It won't allow itself to be lured to where it has no leverage against Usagi."

Usagi saw Rei open her mouth to comment when Kai interrupted.  "Why is Cosmos not here helping us plan then?" 

They did not know that queen Serenity had sent her daughter away to become Sailor Cosmos?  They did not know that the position of Sailor Moon had been created to ensure that the absent princess remained bound to her mother's people?  Usagi blinked in surprise.  She would never have even considered the possibility that these men did not know of her duel destiny.  She looked from Kai's pale eyes to Mamoru's dark ones.  He knew and had known before they had met.  She had never considered that he might know but his guards might not.  Pale lips curved up in amusement at her surprise and Mamoru turned to his generals.

"Usako is Sailor Cosmos."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mamoru allowed himself a trace of amusement as he watched his guards but behind that amusement a cold flame had once more begun to burn.  It confused him, this flame, for it spoke of a passion that was no longer possible for him.  Even the animosity that he held for the Senshi and their queen was rather mild in comparison to this.  He did not quite understand the reason for the flame's existence yet and that was reason enough for him to conceal it.

Her looked across the table and met her sapphire eyes.  His… Usako.  She was the daughter of a woman that he held absolutely no respect for and yet she, herself, inspired a great deal more than respect within him.  He felt the dead and barren part of his soul starting to quicken in her presence and it was obvious to him that they were bound in an inexplicable way.  The question was did he want to be so bound?  

He had spent a thousand years denying all ties but those to his generals and now he was offered something that promised to be infinitely more intimate than those.  Love was a weakness; of this he held no doubt.  Love, friendship and other such sentimental drivel held no value to him for none were anything other than transient products of hormones.  Even before experiencing the emptiness of death he had done everything within his power to emulate it and had, in no small way, succeeded.  Now she came.  With her she brought the dross that cluttered the mind and he wondered if perhaps there was a way to accept it without becoming weak.

A thousand years ago he would not have hesitated.  Had it been offered to him before his alliance with Beryl and Metallia or even as he hurled his sword at the silver queen's back then he would have welcomed it.  It would have ended his agony of yearning and filled him with joy, but from the moment that he had felt the bite of a crystal blade he had found his ease in another manner.  True death had slipped around him and covered him with its dark cloak and what he had started himself was finished.  It was so easy to endure when you no longer cared, to be dark, evil, cruel, malicious, and a thousand other qualities that most would condemn.  Such minor considerations as ethics and what was right were easy to cast aside and then the world was abounding with possibilities.  

He discovered a thousand ways to amuse himself and invented a thousand more.  That many of them lured the Senshi into opposition with him only increased their attraction.  They were the ultimate challenge and he fulfilled two purposes each time he began their little war anew: first he staved off ennui and second he worked out his frustrations on those who truly did deserve his attention.  

They and their queen… he did not hate them, they were not worth the effort but always a part of him felt that they were responsible for what he had become.  It was because of them that he had come to relish the pain of others and so it was only fitting that the bulk of that pain be theirs.  He had never understood why he had instinctively felt that way.  Now, looking into the heavenly blue depths of their princess' eyes, he began to see consciously what his heart had always known.

They hated him.  

Good.  

They were afraid of him.  

Even better.  

They did not trust him.  

How perceptive they were.  

They believed that he would hurt their queen.

Given the opportunity, of course.

They thought he would hurt their princess.  

Never.

He could almost laugh at himself and he would have if habit had not been so ingrained.  That he, of all people, felt so strongly and so deeply was absurd and it was for one of the hated Senshi at that!  The greatest villain in history was in love with the Senshi daughter of the wretched queen of the Moon Kingdom!  What an incredible jest fate had played.

Mamoru had never been one to indulge in self-deceptions and he was more than brutally honest with himself.  He would accept the gift his Usako offered, the gift of herself.  He would accept it and treasure it but first it would be necessary to ensure that it would not be snatched from his grasp. Chaos may be fixated on Cosmos but Mamoru's own sentiments dwarfed that obsession.   

He stood abruptly, his generals instantly following his lead.

"What are you doing?"  It was the golden Minako who growled at him and for the first time in many years Mamoru did not bother to antagonise her.  What was the purpose?  With Usako present there was no need for him to find amusement in a lesser woman.

"I am leaving Venus," he answered coldly.

The Senshi looked as if they were unsure as whether they should celebrate or scowl.  Then his blonde angel rose to her feet as well.  "I had hoped that you would help us," she told him regretfully. 

"Princess!"

Almost invisibly Usako flinched and Mamoru had to swallow a disgusted comment.  Did these Senshi truly know so little of she whom they professed to serve?  "Your mother's Senshi and I would not work well together Usako.  And I am sure that you are aware that I truly would not care should each and every one of them die.  Only for you did I help them, never again will I or my generals do so."

She smiled regretfully.  "I know Mamo-chan," she agreed, "But I had hoped…" She trailed off and gave a small shrug.  The darling gesture enchanted him and he stepped towards her but two of the Senshi jumped between them.

"Princess, he's not trustworthy."

"You shouldn't let him near you."

Mamoru snarled in derision, his patience ended.  "You're rather late for that aren't you?"

Minako raised her head defiantly at him and declared dangerously, "You've heard what she had to tell you and were about to leave of your own free will, don't let us stop you."  For all of the venom she injected into her tone the Senshi of Venus could not conceal the slight tremor of fear that ran through her and this only added to the scorn Mamoru felt for them. 

Kai started to move towards the blonde fool to answer the implied insult with force but Mamoru shook his head.  He would not see his generals initiate violence in Usako's presence.  Fools or not, the Senshi were a part of her Kindred.

 "You are an evil son of a bitch Endymion.  It doesn't not matter what you look like or what century it is or how old you are.  You are evil."

"How can someone with such a beautiful soul be evil?" Usako's soft question halted the flow of the blonde twit's tirade.  The Senshi were startled and then horrified.  Their voices began to rise in outrage and disgust.  Only the three women who were her companions seemed willing to listen to her yet she persisted.  "You see a desert when you look at him, a barren, empty wasteland.  But the desert in such a state still bears its own harsh beauty and then it rains and the desert blooms such that there is nothing to compare with it.  Mamo-chan is just waiting for the rain my sisters but even now his soul is so beautiful that it burns me."

For a moment he saw.  He truly saw himself as she did and he felt the shadows flee from the blaze in her eyes.  Then Minako gestured and the Senshi pulled his beautiful rabbit away from him, ignoring her protests.

She thrust her face towards his and hissed.  "You are a monster.  I don't know why Serenity can't see it but we can and we won't let you near her.  She is our princess and we will protect her from you." 

Behind her a pair of sapphire eyes shuttered and Mamoru felt a wrath rise within him as had never happened before.  Only the unfamiliar Starlight Senshi seemed to notice what he did.  He saw a faint hint of sorrow in their expressions and much of his anger turned to ice.  

These deluded wretches who called themselves Senshi had no notion of what Usako was.  They patronised her or idolised her, often doing both simultaneously, but she neither desired nor required either.  She wanted their friendship, not their worship and she needed their trust, not their condescension.  They thought that she was merely the most powerful of their kind born and still refused to listen to what she had to say if it contradicted their own beliefs.  They were utterly ignorant of how much more than that she was.  They presumed to declare that they would protect her from him when they had caused her more pain in the last few minutes than he ever would.

"You will regret those words Venus," he promised emotionlessly as the shadows returned to him and the darkness once more shrouded his being.  Magic was being roused by all present bar Mamoru and the Greater Senshi.  He felt more than one of the Moon's guardian Soldiers attack him in vain just as he felt the efforts of his four sworn companions frustrate those attacks.  He watched as tolerance for their Lesser Kindred withered in the eyes of the Starlight Senshi and he watched as Usako's eyes filled with pain.

His power exploded into being.

When it returned to dormancy only he and eight others remained standing.  Queen Serenity's Senshi were scattered across the room unconscious.  Mamoru repressed the vindictive urge to bring further pain to the pathetic lumps.  Usako would not allow it no matter that they deserved it.

"It is beyond me how they managed to keep you contained for so long," Taiki observed calmly.

Mamoru ignored her in favour of his Usako.  While he cradled her face between his palms and pressed his lips to hers Jin answered for him, "Everything has more value if it is fought for and only the Senshi pose any kind of challenge to us.  Besides, the prince found them amusing."  

"Life can become pretty monotonous after a couple of centuries," Neko agreed, "And if you don't want it to become a burden then you need something resembling a purpose.  Tormenting any associated with the Moon Kingdom can serve quite adequately."

Kai said nothing but then he was watching Mamoru with a mixture of surprise and complete understanding.  Mamoru didn't really care at that moment however.  A small part of his mind absently took note of these events but the larger portion was totally involved with the woman in his arms.  His eyes drifted shut as their lips moved together.  Their lips and his hands at her cheeks were the only points at which they touched and from them heat spread to engulf the both of them.

Could anyone else know the ecstasy that he found in her embrace?  No.  He was the first, and the last also he determined, to ever hold her so.  No other would ever taste of her in such a manner.  He would ensure that with every gram of power at his command.  Usako, Serenity, Moon, Cosmos, one and all, she was his.  Only and ever his.  He would possess her utterly and completely and in every manner possible.  Her body, her mind, her heart and her soul would all be given to him and if not then he would take them but her kiss told him that it would not be necessary.  She was willing to give him everything he desired at that very instant.  If he so wished then their tender, heart-wrenching kiss could become something so much more and a deep and abiding hunger within him demanded that he make that wish.  Not for nothing had he embraced rigid discipline though.

He pulled away.  

Her sapphire eyes fluttered open, slightly dazed.  For that more than anything in his long existence he felt a sense of accomplishment.  At that moment he would have done anything to be able to build on that accomplishment however reality would not wait.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her in a whisper.

"Always," she promised.

He would never be able to describe what he felt when she answered him.  Yes, felt.  Bone-deep and as undeniable as the sun, it swelled within him and all he could do in reply was caress her cheek gently before pulling away and striding out of the shrine.  Moments later his generals were once more at his side, the shrine and the Senshi left behind them.

"My prince?" Kai asked softly.

Mamoru continued to stride purposefully down the street.  "We are going to ensure that, no matter what may come, she will be safe and I don't give a damn what methods we use."

The four men were silent as they processed this.

"I take it we're going to see an insane primal force about a deal," Neko stated after a moment.

Mamoru kept his eyes in front of him.  "Right first time."

"And then it's happily ever after… or at least back to business as usual with a very attractive blonde thrown in?" Jin quipped lightly.

Mamoru smiled and if the Senshi could have seen it they would have been up in arms instantly.  "Not exactly," he answered coldly, "Before that I will have to see a queen about a certain decision she made and then… well then I will make sure that everyone in this universe knows that Usako is mine."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_After so much time I can admit that I not only feared the Terran prince but also envied him.  So easily did he know and fully understand the enigma that was my child and so fiercely protective of her did he become in such a brief passing of time.  And so it was that he was forced into the path that he took.  As ashamed as I am to admit it, my Senshi gave him no other option.  At all costs 'his' angel must be allowed to survive and to his mind the Senshi only hindered her chances.  So he sought out Chaos._

_There was no place on Earth that was hidden from him and so it was not long before he found the entity.  For Endymion's consent to hunt in his territory and licence to run amok Chaos in turn granted the prince the complete safety of his generals and his mate.  For the sake of my daughter's life Endymion essentially condemned his entire world to death.  Chaos was evil, cruel, malicious and insane.  Endymion was evil, cruel, malicious and frighteningly sane._

_The bargain that was struck was in every sense a pact made with the devil but which party played what part I wonder?_


	6. 6 of 8

_The Choices We Make: part six_

_By Draegyn_

_Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au_

_Trust is surely a strange quality.  It is a quality that is oft-times given regardless of that which wisdom dictates and, perhaps even more frequently, withheld despite that which the heart advises.  Either way or both can cause untold damage.  See the manner in which my Senshi behaved with my daughter.  An intrinsic part of their beings commanded that their trust be given to their princess and, to a certain extent, they did so.  Yet they did so sparingly.  She was their sister, their princess, and _The_ Celestial Warrior yet their judgement in regards to Endymion caused in their minds unwarranted caution.  And the consequences of such I have already discussed._

_Perhaps.__  Maybe.  If._

_These words are the banes of my existence.  Perhaps if I had been forthright as to the true nature of my daughter's sire the Senshi would have trusted her.  Maybe if I had not regarded Endymion as nothing more than a villain my Senshi would have been more open-minded.  If there had been trust between my Senshi and my daughter would any of them have had to undergo such pain?_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chaos observed the activity of its new human allies with a complete lack of comprehension, an occurrence usually reserved for those who attempted to analyse it instead.  Three of the lesser humans were clustered around a marble dais, organising bonds both magical and physical for the petite female who was now chained there.  The girl, herself, was another mystery.  Masses of loose golden hair tangled about her, neither hindering nor helping as her captors spreadeagled her limbs to be manacled.  She was the Senshi that had defeated its pet Soldier the afternoon before and yet she was so vulnerable.  Even more baffling was the interest that she held for her kidnappers' master.

The unstable creature turned its gaze to Endymion.  Any traces of mortality that the dark prince might have used as camouflage had been cast aside to reveal a being that Chaos could, if not respect, then at least tolerate.  He stood in shadows; a dark man shrouded by darkness, and listened as his most powerful servant reported to him.

"All went as planned your highness.  The Senshi were unaware of our presence and Usagi did not awaken." Kunzite's voice sounded concerned.

Chaos returned its gaze to the unconscious girl.  She did not awaken?  At all?  What kind of Senshi slept with so much danger around her?  What kind of Senshi allowed herself to be abducted without so much as objecting to it?  It had come to expect more from the Kindred, whether they be Greater or Lesser, than this child had shown.  

"What is so vital about this girl?" Chaos demanded, "Why is hers the only starseed you would deny me?"  The four lesser men looked up at him and then to their master who had been unimpressed.  Endymion raised an eyebrow and Chaos narrowed its borrowed eyes at the dark man.  

"My dear Chaos," the prince drawled, "You will have all the starseeds you could possibly desire and I shall enjoy seeing the Senshi at your mercy.  The thought of them obeying one such as you is something I will savour for lifetimes to come.  However they have been joined by three Starlight Senshi and will no longer be so naïve concerning you.  Usako is the one who will deliver them directly into our hands."

"You are so certain?  The presence of the Starlight Senshi provides evidence that Cosmos is somewhere off-world, waiting for them to lure me to her.  I cannot but wonder if your plan will succeed human.  The Greater Kindred are not the pathetic Senshi that you have toyed with on this world.  They are Celestial _Warriors_.  They will do everything in their power to complete their mission, up to and including the abandonment of one of their own."

Endymion smiled calmly.  "Not this one," he replied with absolute certainty.  His eyes traced the curves of the sleeping blonde with possessive pleasure.  Eyes so dark they were black looked up to meet Chaos' gaze.  "Do you know what a double destiny is?" the man asked.  "Has any of the knowledge of the Senshi you have possessed remained within you?"

Chaos sneered.  "Galaxia is dead and any remnant of her destroyed as well.  Now explain what you mean."  

Endymion nodded and Chaos caught a hint of satisfaction in the human.  The pseudo-deity's eyes narrowed at the prince and the satisfaction disappeared at once to be replaced with absolutely nothing.  For a moment Chaos wondered if the man was attempting to veil his emotions but then it realised that the man had none.  That emptiness was a true reflection of Endymion's soul.  No mortal man was this but a pawn that required delicate handling.  Eyes that were blue no longer, glittered like obsidian gems and Chaos' lips curved in a smile.  Yes this was the weapon would bring the Senshi to their knees… all of the Senshi, including Cosmos. 

"A double destiny," the other's words came, calm and emotionless, "Is where a Senshi is called to more than one duty.  Bluntly put, when she is an heiress.  Usako is Senshi yet she is also the only daughter of Serenity of the White Moon and, as such, is the sole heir of the silver queen. They will do anything to get her back.  Anything.  

"They waited for her when I raised their kingdom, the waited when I sank Avalon, and they even waited when I systematically set about eradicating every last trace of mage-blood from humanity.  After so many centuries of witnessing what I am capable of they will do everything within their power to retrieve her. However…" Cold lips curved into an evil smile.  "It will not be enough."  

There was a deadly promise to the Senshi and this silver queen in his voice and Chaos savoured it.  Such power and inhumanity was wrapped within that dark human seeming.  Yet, for all the barrenness of his being, shrouded and camouflaged with shadow, Endymion still possessed a brilliant soul.  

It was a glorious irony.  So much light in such a malevolent being.  The prince was a contradiction.  Impossibility rode in his wake.  Turmoil was fostered in his shadow.  

Death

Devastation.

Imbalance.

Entropy.

He was the perfect tool and, if it had not been foreign to its nature, Chaos would have thanked the unknown monarch for creating him for it.  As it was a part of the demi-deity determined that the so-called 'White Moon' would be the next port of call in its sojourn of the universe.

"You might be interested to know that her mother was doubly destined as well."  

Chaos refocused its attention on the prince and waited for him to elaborate.

With a malicious smile on his face, Endymion obliged.  "Queen Serenity possesses the soul a Greater Senshi.  I would imagine that her own starseed is something to behold."

His knowing smirk indicated that Endymion knew full well he had betrayed an entire people to Chaos and he did not care.  Yet could anything else be expected of one who had handed away his own planet?  What was a foreign kingdom in comparison to that?

"Trust me Chaos," the dark eyed prince murmured smoothly, "With my help every Senshi you desire will be brought low before you.  Including Cosmos."  There was a flash of white as he bared his teeth in feral glee.  

Chaos' attention was fully upon the prince.  Cosmos…

"You will see them chained and naked before you," he promised and lightly crossed the distance to the dais and its burden.  

A wicked laugh burst from the prince as the golden-haired Senshi's eyes snapped open.  With a flamboyant gesture a stiletto appeared in his hand and he laid it at her throat.  Her sapphire eyes, so reminiscent to Chaos of another's, were wide as they fixed on him.  Slowly and torturously he drew the blade down her abdomen.  Chaos watched the fabric of her apparel gape with private amusement; the small slit of creamy skin bared was a tantalising promise of what remained concealed.  With a wrench that concealment was removed and she lay bare before them all with only her hair to provide inadequate cover.   One hand placed possessively on her stomach, Endymion looked back at Chaos.  "Usako is only the first."  

The generals showed no surprise at either their master's actions or the Senshi's beauty.  Apparently the games they had played for a millennium with her sisters had worn the novelty away from such a scene.  Thoughts of a silver-haired Senshi in place of the gold teased Chaos and he smiled hungrily in anticipation as Endymion bent close to his captive so that his breath could brush her ear.  His words echoed around them, mocking and arrogant.  "The Senshi warned you not to trust me."

Chaos erupted into laughter.  When its amusement faded it addressed the prince.  "The life of this one Senshi is all you wish?  There is nothing more?"  Its mood altered to one of suspicion like quicksilver.  "Why would you offer me so much if there was not something else?"

"I have no doubt that you can sense the truth in my words," the prince drawled calmly, despite the danger.  "You must be aware that I have not lied once.  I will deliver the Senshi to you and even restrain them while you rip their starseeds from them if it comes to that."  His lips moulded themselves into an evil smile.  "And I would enjoy it.  I would not care if you eradicated the Senshi from the universe so long as Usako remained mine.  In fact watching and perhaps even aiding you in your plans would have been enough in other circumstances.  I never did like the way this universe was run anyway."

It was truth.  Every sentence and every word was the complete and utter truth.  Chaos regarded the prince.  Such an admirable state of mind he possessed.  It was a pity that more did not share it.  For example the helpless Senshi who glared at it from her stone bed could benefit from a dose of such attitude, the serene expression in her sapphire gaze grated.  Still, the being could not imagine that peace enduring for long after she had a chance to fully enjoy her new master's control.  

"And the other Senshi?" it inquired, "You are sure they will come here?"  It was not convinced that the Senshi would come, no matter what Endymion might say.  In its experience Senshi never placed personal matters above duty.

Endymion frowned but not for the reason Chaos had expected. "Kunzite!"  The pale-eyed general bowed and Endymion nodded towards Chaos.  "Our friend here has a point.  They will probably need a map.  See to it that they actually know where to come."

The general nodded and disappeared and Endymion smirked at Chaos.  "You know Senshi," Endymion commented sardonically, "Sometimes they are a little slow to catch on."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seiya walked down the dimly lit corridor, her long black ponytail swaying in her wake.  Behind her the voices of her sister Senshi blurred into one another as they endlessly discussed the problem of Chaos.  No suggestions were being made that had not already been considered a thousand times before and still the dilemma of how to lure the abomination off Earth remained.

"Starf… Seiya-san wait up!" an uncomfortably loud voice from behind her called.

The Starlight turned to find the Senshi of Venus trotting towards her.  "Yes Minako-san?"  Her voice was unintentionally cold but after she considered it for a moment Seiya found that she did not regret it.  Minako blinked in surprise at the slightly critical tone but shrugged it off and Seiya found her irritation growing.

It had been several hours since the disquieting prince had left them and nearly two since Usagi had excused herself.  To be alienated by Kindred, specifically the Senshi who should have been closest to her no less, was a terrible thing for Usagi to endure.  She had done so for as long as she could but it was inevitable that she would leave for the familiar safety of solitude.  Seiya found it abhorrent that the beautiful Senshi was reduced to seeking comfort in the same thing that had been her bane for centuries and the leader of the Starlights could not stop herself from blaming the Planetary Senshi for the necessity of it. 

She knew her eyes reflected some of this but the Celestial Soldier showed no sign of noticing.

"I was just wondering if you could tell me a little more of the princess…" Minako trailed off under the weight of Seiya's surprised eyes.  The blonde made a face and explained sheepishly.  "You see she left us when she was only three days old…"

"I know," Seiya interrupted impatiently.  What was the point of this?

The other Senshi blushed.  "I guess you do, after all it was a Starlight who trained her right?"

"Yes, so?"

"It's just… The princess is like our icon.  She's the symbol of our future, our light of hope… but she seems so… I don't know… different I guess," Minako stuttered.

"Different?" Seiya inquired archly.  These Senshi did not know Usagi as Serenity or Cosmos.  Who were they to judge if she was different or not?

Minako waved her hands in a lame attempt to help explain herself.  "She doesn't act like a princess…"

"She was not raised as one," Seiya snapped.

"I know," Minako agreed hastily, "But she doesn't act like a Senshi should either.  She's Senshi twice over for Serenity's sake and _the_ Senshi to boot!  She is the ultimate Celestial Warrior and I'd be willing to bet that Sailor Moon is the ultimate Celestial Soldier.  She shouldn't be treating this so… so…"

"Lightly?"  Seiya stared into Minako's blue eyes scornfully.  This woman looked so like her friend and yet they were so different.  Usagi would never be deceived by appearances.  "Do you have any idea of what it is like for her?" she demanded angrily and Minako took a step back.  "A thousand years Minako, a thousand years she has pursued Chaos knowing that she might have to sacrifice her friend to finally defeat it.  A thousand years that for the most part she has spent alone in her grim duty.  A thousand years of undoing the devastation it leaves in its path to taunt her.  She shoulders the guilt of its actions because she believes that the atrocities it causes are because of her and the fixation it has on her.  You wonder why she distracts herself with minor concerns?  It is because she will go mad if she does not.  Do not resent her for the few joys she finds because soon she will loose them again."

"If it means that she overlooks the obvious then yes I will resent her for it.  I wouldn't if she wished to undergo a light flirtation, for Serenity's sake I'm the Senshi of love!  But not with Mamoru, never with Mamoru.  He is evil, completely and utterly…"

"So you have said already," Seiya interrupted with disgust.  "You have told all of us at great length about the vileness of Earth's prince.  I have heard it all before.  Now why don't you attempt to hear what my fellow Starlights and I have been trying to hammer into your thick heads?  Odango, Usagi, Serenity, Moon or Cosmos, her judgement is sound.  Stop thinking in such narrow confines and broaden your horizons!  She is not the princess or the Senshi that you have been expecting!  She is more!  Why do you think she fascinates Chaos so much?  It isn't because she is some delicate little princess or your run of the mill Senshi!"

"Why don't you tell me?" Minako retorted sharply back.  "Why is Chaos so interested in her?  Does she have some kind of evil magnet?  Does she enjoy attracting lunatics and monsters?"

Seiya realised that she had pushed the other Senshi too far but still the reply was unforgivable.  Ocean-blue eyes scornfully regarded the Lesser Senshi.  Lesser indeed.  Until now the Starlight had never interacted much with any of the Kindred aside from Cosmos and her two fellow Starlights and now she was grateful for it.  If the Moon Kingdom's Senshi were typical then her segregation was a blessing.  How could any be so blind about the true nature of one they professed to serve?

"Ask your queen!" the Starlight answered in a stony voice.  "I have no doubt that she knows and I would not be surprised if it had much to do with whom Odango's father is."

"Are you implying that queen Serenity…" Minako stuttered in rage.

Seiya rolled her eyes.  "I implied nothing!" she spat, "I have better manners than to insult someone so deserving of respect.  Unlike you who has been casting doubt on the abilities of your own princess.  Where is your faith now Minako?  Your princess has returned to you and tied herself to the double burden of duty that you and your people have forced upon her but where is your trust?  Does she not deserve even a little?"

The blonde looked stricken and Seiya relented slightly.  "It is not your fault but you are expecting both more and less from her than she can give.  She will be your greatest friend if you let her but she will not be your leader.  She might form temporary alliances as she has with myself and the other Starlights but in the end she fights alone.  Ultimately that is what it means to be of the Greater Senshi."

"But…"

"She is not the one who will make everything right for you and lead you into a happily ever after.  She is the one who will make it possible for someone else to do so."  Seiya sternly examined the Planetary Senshi to see if she understood.  "Respect her judgement and all will be well."

"I…"

"You do still have a voice yes?" Seiya teased gently, pleased that the lesson was, if not learned, then at least underway.

"She was supposed to become our saviour," Minako said sadly, apparently taking the Starlight's words to heart.

"I don't remember Starteacher telling me anything about that," Seiya responded, "But I think that you'll find that she already is…" she trailed off when she realised that Minako was staring at something behind her.  She spun and her eyes widened.  The door at the end of the hall, the one to the room in which Usagi had retired to, had fallen off its hinges.  Without a second thought both Senshi dashed towards it only to come to an abrupt halt when they were able to see within the room itself.

The first thing that Seiya noticed was Kai, or rather Kunzite floating in the centre of the room and the second was that Usagi was gone.  There was no trace of her energy anywhere within the building let alone the room.  

"Where's the princess?" Minako demanded.  Seiya noticed that she still persisted in thinking of Usagi as royalty and despaired but it was not the time to dwell on it.

Kunzite shrugged insolently.  "My prince wanted to see her so he sent my fellow generals to issue an invitation that she just could not refuse.  I was told to extend that same invitation to you.  His new associate is very eager to meet you all."

New associate?  Seiya felt her stomach sink.  Surely Endymion would not be so stupid as to ally with Chaos?  Surely…

"You bastards!" Minako screamed and an instant later was garbed in the uniform of Sailor Venus.  A whip of orange power snaked at the silver-haired general but he merely snorted and flicked the power away.

"Come now Venus, surely you have more imagination than this?  I learned to defeat this centuries ago!"  Moments later a spell very like the one that a certain prince had cast earlier bound the Senshi of love yet again.

Venus snarled unintelligibly and her head turned to Seiya who watched blankly.  "And Serenity wanted us to trust them," she growled.

Trust…  Perhaps Mamoru was not the only one who had made a gamble.  Perhaps…

"Your prince is playing a risky game," Seiya said calmly, still reluctant to garb herself in her battle leathers.  "Chaos is more than unstable and unpredictable.  There is no guarantee that it will give him what it promised."

"There are no guarantees in life," Kunzite responded and there was more respect in his voice than there had been with Venus.  

"And if it realises who Odango is?  He is risking her soul."

"It won't learn…"

"What do you mean?" Venus demanded, "They've probably already given her to it bound and gagged on a silver platter!"

"A marble dais actually," Kunzite drawled, "And she is not gagged, it was not necessary, although the chains most definitely were.  We could not risk her summoning her power of course and I must admit that Endymion is enjoying her position greatly.  He always did like having Senshi naked and helpless before him."

"_What_?!" Venus screeched, outraged.  Not far away their sister Senshi heard the scream and started to run for them.  The situation would become bloody but Seiya was not certain that she regretted it.  If even a portion of what the general implied was true then she herself would want to extract her pound of flesh from the arrogant prince on behalf of her friend.

Kunzite must have seen her growing ire for he addressed her quietly, ignoring Venus.  "Her dignity might have been taken but her soul is still safely kept by my prince.  She is his and he will not give her up.  That is the one thing you can trust, Endymion will ensure her safety from Chaos."

_That_ was why…?  The turn of events suddenly made sense to Seiya and absently she called on her power as Senshi.  Trusting Endymion meant trusting a self-admitted monster.  Believing her sister Senshi was the logical path but she could not help but question their judgement…  She felt the currents of destiny moving strongly now and shook her head.  Starfighter met Kunzite's eyes and intuition roused.  "You know the price that you and your fellows will pay for your prince's decision?"

He did not answer but for the smallest moment the icy façade that concealed his thoughts disappeared and she saw the overwhelming weariness of the man's soul.  Only duty and love had compelled him to follow his prince for so long.  Death now was not to be dreaded, it would be a blessing but only if he could ensure that his prince would be well.  It was only fraction of a second and then it was gone.  Behind her the other Senshi had arrived.

So many risks and so much to lose.  

She decided.

"Take us to them," she told the man.  He smiled slightly and bowed.

"You can't be serious?!" Venus burst out incredulously while their sisters looked on, baffled.  "You can't seriously intend to trust him?!"

"No," Starfighter agreed.  "I'm going to trust Usagi."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  She was defenceless against Chaos.  Her power as a Senshi denied to her by the manacles that bound her and she was helpless to change it.  Usagi had never felt such fear in her entire thousand years and she let it show in her eyes.  Chaos seemed to enjoy it but her Mamo-chan, for all his show of cruel lust, did not.  Chaos might not see it but Usagi did and that was more than enough reason for her to continue trusting him and that trust in turn made him stronger.  She could feel it through the contact of his fingers on her bare skin just as she could feel another power growing within her.

It was something she had never encountered before.  It was an experience entirely new to her but one she welcomed for with it came warmth and promise.  It was golden and warm and foreign to her but so familiar that she could have wept for it.  It was a tantalising hint of a future that might be if given a chance to develop.  It was the sensation of a soul being shared with her, a soul beginning to pulse with life after a long dormancy.

Her eyes were wide as she met Endymion's.  Eyes that were indigo no longer showed a hint of regret before they left hers.  Chaos no doubt believed that the prince's wandering hands were causing her to fear but it did not understand her and Mamoru did.  Endymion… he was Endymion in this form and she forced herself to remember it but she could not stop herself from thinking of him as Mamo-chan.    When he cruelly squeezed her arm in a crushing grip moments later she made no effort to hide her cry of pain.

Chaos watched her hungrily as Endymion deliberately caused her pain and it was that rather than the mild abuse that caused more discomfit.  She was not the only one who noticed and it irritated the prince as much as it made her uneasy.  

"She is mine remember _partner_," he growled in warning.

"So she is," Chaos agreed with a placating smile but Usagi did not need prior experience to detect the deception in the being.  It had not realised who she was… yet but it would soon.  It was unavoidable, a product of the most basic facet of her identity that preceded even that in her that was Senshi.  It was the reason she was the one who had to hunt Chaos.  It was the reason Chaos wanted to hunt her.

Before any more could be said between the two Kunzite returned, Senshi in tow.  It was only a moment before the atmosphere was permeated with their outrage and hatred as they saw her.  Then Endymion obscured her view of them and with her bounds inhibiting her power she could only follow the short scuffle by the sound alone.  She knew it was over when Chaos laughed and for a moment she felt incredible regret.  If she had believed Venus and Mars then she would not be in these straights.  Then Endymion's hand squeezed hers gently while Chaos was distracted and her faith returned in a rush.  

When he cleared her line of sight Usagi saw the inner Senshi on their knees, each watched by a general.  The outer Senshi and the Starlights looked defeated, held as they were in a chains of power, and Chaos eyed them all greedily.

"Chained and naked, as you promised," it reminded the prince.

Endymion nodded with a small smirk.  "So I did," he agreed easily.  He ambled across the room to where Kunzite stood with Venus contained at his feet.  Without being told the general levitated her into the air.

Usagi's heart clenched as the prince's smile grew malicious.  "Well pretty Venus," he murmured, "It appears you do not like being trapped.  I wonder if you thought of that when you killed Zoisite and Kunzite all those centuries ago."

His power roused and not even the manacles could have stopped her from sensing it.  The dark prince reached into the golden Senshi's chest and tore her power asunder.

Venus no longer, Minako screamed in agony.  As Endymion's hand withdrew, a pulsing orange mass of energy held in his fist, he ripped at her clothes and left her bare from neck to waist.

"How's this?" he asked nonchalantly, displaying the orange power for all to see.

Chaos' face was almost respectful as it answered, "And her starseed is still intact within her.  Impressive."

Endymion shrugged slightly.  "Not really.  She is a Lesser Senshi.  She did not have to earn her power, nor did the gods choose her for her worthiness.  A mortal queen simply gave it to her.  What is so difficult about taking it back again?"  He looked at Minako who hung wretchedly in Kunzite's spell.  With a dismissive flick, he hurled the orange mass back at her.  Her eyes remained blue marbles as her power soaked back into her, it would take time for her to recover from the hurt that she had suffered.

Endymion had already forgotten her and continued on to his next victim.  He stopped before Mercury and despite herself she trembled.  Usagi closed her eyes, unable to watch her sister's torture.  The Senshi of ice whimpered and there was a pause.  

"I wonder if you would like to try one," Endymion mused aloud.  Usagi's eyes snapped open to find Chaos's lips twitching in interest.  "After all," the prince continued, "You have a few to practice on and there is almost nothing more enjoyable than Senshi screaming in pain caused by you."

"True," Chaos agreed in pleased surprise.  "That is very true…"  It glanced at Usagi and neither she nor Endymion missed it but he said nothing.

With an arrogant swagger it joined Endymion near Mercury and mimicked his movements of moments before.  Ami screamed and Usagi felt tears come to her eyes at the pain they were enduring.

Chaos flourished the pale blue amorphous mass of magic aloft and it cackled in abrupt glee.  Suddenly inspired, it moved to Mars and did the same.  As Rei slumped to the ground Chaos regard the scarlet in its left hand and the blue it its right.  With a brutal snicker it pushed the two together and magicks of fire and ice melded.

"I agree that it offers many possibilities," Endymion interrupted indifferently, "However if you still wish to collect starseeds then I would advise you not to extinguish their power completely.  It would render their starseeds to level of a normal mortal's but it is your decision."  

Sighing in a blatant mockery of regret, the winged being separated the two powers and tossed them back to their respective owners.  It regarded the captured Senshi for a moment and then turned to Endymion.  "I do believe I owe you a favour for demonstrating that nasty little trick of yours."

Endymion raised an eyebrow.  "Oh?  What do you have in mind?"

It smiled and Usagi shivered.  "How about I teach you how to take a starseed?"

The prince tilted his head.  "Tempting," he replied and smiled darkly.  "Why not begin with Jupiter?  Give her sisters the time to recover so that they may appreciate the experience of the theft more completely."

The other Senshi looked at the prince with hate but Usagi was grateful.  None of the three would have been able to endure a theft, not now, not so soon after having the source of their power violated so badly.

"Why not indeed?" Chaos murmured and both looked at the brunette Senshi.  Her face was twisted into a defiant scowl but there was fear in her emerald eyes.  Chaos strolled over to her and Nephrite obligingly raised the captive Soldier into the air.

Moments later Jupiter slumped and Chaos held out her emerald starseed for the prince to take.  He did so and examined it closely.  "And that is all it involves?" he asked.

Chaos nodded.  "Simple yes?"

"Very… and with its absence you can force a Senshi to serve you?"

"If you have the power to keep her alive after it is gone."

Endymion nodded thoughtfully and Chaos moved back to Venus.  It started to repeat the process when a high pitch whine stopped it.  It began to turn but not fast enough.  Only the fact that its wing had moved saved it.  The tip of the dragon-wing fell to their ground and the being shrieked in betrayal as pain lanced through it.  Endymion did not waste time though.  He struck again and again without hesitation.

"Liar!" It back-pedalled away from the attacking prince.

Endymion laughed grimly.  "How so?  I brought the Senshi to you."  He slashed but Chaos threw itself back and he missed by a hair's width.  "They are chained… but not all naked and, although their starseeds are here with you, you don't have them… I meant it at the time but I guess I am a liar.  Surprise, surprise!"

Chaos drew itself up, power beginning to shimmer around it.  "You could have been a god at my side."

"I would have been a slave," Endymion contradicted coldly, "What do you think I am?  A moron?  You are a fool.  One that gave me the secret to the universe however so I guess I should be grateful to you."  He moved in a blur and he brought his sword down upon Chaos' head with all of his strength.  "But I'm not."

There was a resounding clang as Chaos blade interposed itself under Endymion's.

"Ungrateful worm!"

Power flared, bonds of magic were broken, bodies were flung apart and through it all Endymion stood strong.  "I am the worm?  It is I who arranged the downfall of the Senshi, not you.  You cannot even find a pawn that can stand against one Senshi let alone eight."

Two different and yet strangely similar powers grappled with one another.  The first had evolved beyond its mortal origins and struggled with its full potency.  The second was kin to nothing living and merged with the stolen power of a Senshi and neither of its dual facets had fully wakened yet.  Wakened or not, with each blow the ground shook, the walls trembled and the roof shuddered.  Endymion was outmatched, of that Usagi was sure, but he did not seem to realise that.  The point was driven home when a wave of pure force began to crush him.

Chaos' eyes flicked to Usagi, no doubt reminded that it was she who had defeated said pawn.  Its dark eyes lit up and it started towards her but the generals barred its way.  

"We won't let you go past," Kunzite informed it levelly.

It sneered at them.  "What makes you think you have a choice?"  Dragon-wings arced in the air above it.  Galaxia's stolen power snaked out and surrounded the four.  Endymion countered its spell and attacked it from behind but one of the wings swept out and threw him across the room.  There was a crack as he hit a stone wall.  The four generals attempted to break free of the magic holding them but they were simply outmatched.  Slowly, one-by-one, four cracks broke the stillness and, one-by-one, the generals' corpses fell to the ground.

Chaos did not bother to turn and mock the prince.  Instead it persisted in approaching Usagi.  She shrank back as far as her chains would allow her but it was not far enough.  A hand pregnant with power reached for her and paused as insane eyes met her own.  For an endless moment crimson eyes locked with sapphire and frowned.  A mauve tinted hand reached towards Usagi's chin and the Senshi trembled.

It was beginning to see…

Usagi was starting to panic.  Chaos' power was fully roused, they did not stand a chance unless she became Cosmos and that would mean the end of the Earth.  She wrenched her gaze from Chaos' and sought out Endymion's.  With everything in her she begged him to prove her trust was warranted. 

He wordlessly acted.  His sword spun through the air in a graceful ballet.  Chaos whirled at the faint hum it made and leapt towards him.  Endymion was soon involved in a grim struggle for his life as Chaos attempted to wring the breath from him personally.  A part of her mind was transfixed by the life and death struggle, another part – the part that was Senshi – was focused intently on the airborne blade.  It seemed like an eternity as she watched it slice almost unnoticed through the air.  It neared her and, almost in slow motion, she raised one of her manacled wrists as high as she was able.

The sword sheared through the spell-wrought metal with a screech of protest and neither manacle nor blade survived the meeting.  With the loss of the restraint came the return of her power and without hesitation she wrenched herself free of her remaining bonds.  She stood and the remaining fragments of her clothes fluttered away but it did not matter, moments later she was garbed in the uniform of Sailor Moon and her sword was in her hand.

She started to go to Endymion's aide, to forcefully pull the creature aside from him regardless of the consequences.  It had stolen one of her friends from her and she would never let it take him as well.  She would use every last drop of the power within her to save him, it did not matter if it realised who she was.  It did not matter if the long awaited confrontation between the two was begun.  She would not let it have _her_ prince.  Then a glimpse of the Senshi stopped her.  The inners were sprawled across the floor, temporarily crippled because of their treatment at the hands of the same prince she wished to save.  The outer Senshi and the Starlights beat at the confines of their cage but even in death the generals' spell held strong.  They were caught, and they were helpless.  Starfighter's dark blue eyes met hers, knowing the dilemma she was in.  She could fight Chaos but only at the cost of their lives… and the Earth's.  

She could feel Chaos' power beating at her, a twisted radiance that hurt her senses to behold.  It knew of her observation, it even turned to grin and taunt her as it crushed the life from the dark prince.  That was its undoing.  In that one moment of distraction Endymion lashed out, both mentally and physically.  An armoured boot connected with the centre of Chaos' breastplate and a lash of gold magic cut through its spells.  Moon watched Endymion roll hastily away from Chaos and lurch to his feet and she started towards him once more.  His eyes did not leave Chaos' form but he knew of her intent before she did.

"NO!" his voice a command that even she could not disobey.  "Run!"

Run?  She blinked.  The Senshi… Chaos… Mamo-chan…

"Go!" it was an agonised shriek.  Endymion hurled himself uselessly at Chaos to buy her time to flee but his very insistence worked against him and revealed his weakness to his enemy.  Sensing how it could hurt the treacherous prince the most, the being casually backhanded the man away and turned back toward the dais on which Sailor Moon stood.

Endymion staggered back, his face white with what could only be fear.  "Go!" he shouted again as he attacked once more.  Moon hesitated, unsure as to what she should do.  Run?  But how could she leave her sisters like this?  Stay?  But to do so would inevitably mean revealing her true power and Chaos would react to that the way a rat did when cornered: by becoming ten times more dangerous.  Chaos saw her indecision and its arrogant swagger slowed as it gloated over its triumph.

"If you don't run I will kill the Senshi myself…"

Strangely the threat calmed her.  Her eyes flicked back to Endymion's and no longer did they find chips of obsidian flint.  Twin indigo infernos caught and held matching sapphires.  He would follow through on the threat, no one who heard it doubted that but instead of betrayal she felt determination and she _knew_.  She knew what he had intended.  She knew that she had been right to trust him.   And she knew that this time, because of him, she would win.

White wings spread and wind gusted as they came down in a powerful stroke.  She was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_My daughter's instant rapport with the Terran prince is a bond that I, even to this day, cannot be glad of.  Yet that bond gave her heart a message and she listened.  She trusted him with a joy and gladness that I can do naught but envy and that trust stood her in good stead.  He who had mastered death faced a fate far worse than that for her.  Had Chaos not allowed him his independence he would not have capable of objecting.  For all that he had faced the being down previously his manner had been pure bluff.  _

_It is true that he performed atrocious acts and the question of whether the end justifies the means once more arrises.  He tortured my Senshi in a way that none bar another Senshi could ever comprehend the magnitude of.  He degraded my daughter.  Still it was these acts and the genuine indifference within him that allowed him to succeed where no other could._

_Chaos was stronger than he.  It was older and far more dangerous.  It was undependable.  If it had decided to reft his starseed from the prince then Endymion could have done nothing aside from die.  The prince risked not only his soul, an item he did not value overmuch but also his freedom, a concept that he treasured beyond all else.  In doing so gave my daughter the opportunity she had sought for a millennium.  Did that make his acts right however?  I think of my Senshi who even now still fear him and I remember my daughter for whom he risked everything.  _

_He gambled and won.  What more can I say?_


	7. 7 of 8

_The Choices We Make: part seven_

_By Draegyn_

_Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au_

There are many perversions of the natural order of things.  Chaos was one such, in a manner of speaker Endymion was another and some might even claim my daughter was a third.  Each possessed extraordinary power yet that is not what made them unnatural.  Their power was perhaps the most natural part of them, of who and what they were.  That power was their strength and their weakness for it was what chained them to follow their natures without recourse.

_Is it any wonder then that my daughter became Cosmos?  Her sense of self would not have permitted otherwise._

_Is it any wonder that Endymion became a monster? Deprived of the insulation that my daughter would have provided his soul from his mind he could be nothing but._

_Is it any wonder that both of them proved dangerously alluring to Chaos?  _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chaos snarled in fury.  Its crippled wings strained as it followed in the Senshi's wake.  How dare that human betray it!  It would ensure that he felt every agony it could bring to bear.  It would rip his starseed from his chest and trap him in servitude for the rest of eternity.  It would use the man's own technique to flay Endymion's magic from his soul.  And, first last and always, it would hold Sailor Moon over the prince's head. 

It grinned in anticipation and garnered a new burst of speed.  It would make the miserable worm watch as it tore her being asunder time and time again.  It would heap every indignity upon her and it would make him watch.  For the rest of eternity Endymion would know that the one thing he had sought to preserve belonged to Chaos and never again would he even be permitted to touch.

It burst through the uppermost level of cloud with these thoughts in mind.  Its prey was a small white blob in the distance but it was growing.  Almost absently the creature stroked the pitch-black hilt of its sword.  Perhaps it would not even bother keeping her alive.  It would impale the Senshi on that sword and present her bloody remains to the false prince.  Maybe it would make the wretch wear her intestines as a necklace for the next century or two.  Never before had a single being roused such anger and hatred within it.  Not even Cosmos.  No, for Cosmos it felt something entirely different.  It would set her above the man and together they would grovel for its attention and Endymion would know that, while Chaos had its Senshi, his was gone forever.

Earth's atmosphere thinned around it and gave way to the vacuum of space.  Chaos pulled itself up abruptly.  It had forgotten something but what?  A white feather drifted in front of it, its prey was close.  Its senses reached out, searching; yet the nagging sense of something wrong persisted.  Time and time again it dismissed it.  It wanted this moon princess who was also a Senshi.  It would enjoy her.  Perhaps it would exchange Galaxia's body for hers temporarily.  It could flaunt her in front of her prince and taunt him with his failure.  Perhaps it might even cause Cosmos more pain.  The loss of another sister would wound the overly sentimental Senshi.   Maybe it would be enough to distract her, or even allow it to approach her unnoticed…

Space.

Feathers.

Eyes of living sapphire.

It turned to flee back to the Earth but the way was barred.  Its power and its eyes found her simultaneously.  It did not understand how it had failed to know her.  Golden hair instead of silver, round buns instead of heart-shaped, a sword instead of a staff, a different uniform.  None of these were significant changes.  How could it have missed the obvious?

Her velvet voice echoed in its mind. "Endymion kept his promise to you.  I was brought low before you."  Those indescribable eyes shone strangely with an expression it had never thought to see there.  "You had me in your power, chained and bound."  

She stood motionless in space, waiting between it and the Earth as she watched it calmly.  There was none of the fear she had shown before and none of the indecision, there was only calm calculation and cool determination.  How could it have been so blind?

"Cosmos…"

"It ends now," she promised it.  Her crystal weapon was raised and Chaos barely managed to bring its own sword up in time.  She had not even bothered to dispel whatever illusion she maintained and face it with her true appearance.

"You are so sure?" it taunted with a growl and lashed out but struck nothing and was then forced to scramble to block her counterattack.  

Her confident expression did not change.  "Yes," she replied evenly, "After all I was born for this."

She swung low and when it moved its sword to defend her foot kicked out and the sharp heal slashed across its cheekbone.  "Galaxia would not be appreciative," it sneered but inwardly it was shaken.  Something was different about this battle.

"Galaxia will forgive me."

It raised its magic to strike at her in an attempt to do with magic what it could not accomplish with brute force alone.  For the first time in memory its power was stopped cold.  It regarded her in disbelief.  It could not be possible…

"How can you match me?  I am Chaos!"

She stared at it, unaffected.  "And you were never meant to be incarnate.  The nature of a physical form is almost a direct contradiction of the basic nature of Chaos."

It flailed at her frantically.  Slashes of energy and blade assailed her and were met with an impeccable defence.  

"What does that matter?" it demanded.

"It is the reason you experience obsession, malice, vindictiveness and pride.  The universe is attempting to balance you out but it cannot, not properly, and it is driving you mad."

It looked at her wildly.  Mad?  "But I am madness, I am Chaos!"

"You are predictable in your madness.  Otherwise how else would Endymion have been able to ensure that you would chase me?"  

It flinched back and she suddenly retook the offensive.  Besieged by the combination of expert martial skills and a barrage of power it found itself out of its league.  Not since before it had possessed Galaxia had it found itself outmatched and it found itself retreating.

"Now it is time," she whispered almost gently.  

Chaos was not sure how, but in the blink of an eye it found itself nose to nose with her.  It could feel the heat radiate from her skin before dispersing into space.  One gloved hand clenched around its forearm, the second, sword hilt still in its grasp, found its way beneath Chaos' helmet and into the mass of hair.  Chaos stared into the Senshi's sapphire eyes, transfixed.  It fought the spell that crept through its limbs but finally, after a thousand years of hunting, its nemesis had revealed the true depths of her power and Chaos found them to be the match of its own.

Golden radiance limned them both.  It attempted to twist away, to quench her power, to do anything, but it was in vain.  A spectral hand reached into it and tore it from the body it inhabited.  The power exerted was such that reality around them stretched but there was nothing nearby to be harmed by them.  Agony invaded its being and with it came pure hatred.  Hatred towards Cosmos to match the fascination that had existed for centuries.  Hatred towards the universe for allowing it to be hurt this way.  Hatred towards the Senshi for opposing it.  Hatred towards the prince who had deceived it.  Everything began to focus on the last.

As its senses were both decreased and freed, the memory of the not-quite-mortal man dominated its thoughts.  The golden light that was Galaxia's soul stirred and Chaos found itself being compelled out of its physical habitat by internal and external forces.   Cosmos alone would have been enough but with Galaxia, strengthened by a thousand years worth of hatred, Chaos did not stand a chance.  Together they channelled it into the crystal sword.  As soon as it realise where they were sending it, Chaos's struggles grew exponentially.  It could sense the substance of its nemesis… a substance very like Cosmos and, had it the opportunity to do so, Chaos would have been staggered by the epiphany that hit it.  At that moment however it had other concerns, for example the prospect of spending the rest of eternity residing in a prison of order that was anathema to its own nature.

More and more of it was coerced into the blade and more and more Chaos became frenzied trying to escape.  As the last of its being was forced into its gaol it sensed a strangeness.  It was not a weakness exactly, rather an impurity in the crystal matrix.  It pushed against the strangeness, tasting it and learning from it and triumph rushed through it when it realised what it was.  

Blood.  Crystallised and integrated into the material of the weapon but blood nonetheless and blood was formed in creatures of balance as Cosmos so quaintly phrased it.  Where there was balance there was chaos, with order, true, but still present.

Escape beckoned.

It needed a new form.  A form that provided more power and more advantages.  And perhaps a form that offered other advantages as well.  And the path of its escape would take it to the perfect subject.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturn watched as the man painstakingly arranged the corpses of his four friends, for they were his friends, side by side and stepped back.  Power thundered through the air and the ground came to life.  The very Earth reached up and swallowed the bodies leaving nothing behind to mark their existence.  Nothing but a prince whose heart was so dark that even Chaos had believed he was evil.

For a moment the world stood still and complete and utter silence reigned while Endymion paid a private homage to the four who had been at his side for so many centuries.  They were gone now and Saturn knew that for them it was finally a true death.  Endymion would not resurrect them again.  He would not even try.

Wordlessly and in silent respect for the pain of the prince Starfighter and her two fellow Starlights joined their power and struck at their weakened bonds.  The power of three Celestial Warriors sang an eerie dirge for the four generals of Earth as their last spell was destroyed.  The captured Senshi spilled to the floor.  Saturn landed on her feet with only the smallest stumble and called her glaive back to her hand.  She was free once more but her mind was still stunned by what had just happened and she was unprepared for Uranus' sudden and violent charge at the prince.

The sound of the blow was sharp and harsh, reflecting the force that had thrown the sandy-haired Senshi to the ground.  Saturn whirled in time to see Endymion place his armoured boot on the prone Senshi's throat and sneer down at her.  Saturn winced.  How could her sister have been so foolish as to attack the prince _now_ of all times?  He was never unaware of danger and in grief he was a thousand times more deadly.  Then again, she and her fellow Soldiers had misjudged their princess, how could they be expected to understand him?

Uranus looked up at the man with a mixture of hatred and fear.  His sneer merely conveyed mild disgust.  "I should have waited until you were dead," he murmured he flicked a bright, sparkling object at her and Uranus caught it by reflex.  "You should probably heal your friend, the spell that keeps her alive is fading even now."

Even now he was dismissive of them, uncaring and scornful.  Saturn watched him for a moment.  His actions had maliciously caused the inner Senshi pain and yet she felt no anger for it.  He had conspired with the enemy but then, he was the enemy.  She found that she no longer hated him, or even resented him… much.  In truth there was only one true objection that she had to his recent actions.

With that thought in mind she approached him.  He knew she was there without looking.  "I have no need to justify myself to you," he drawled as he retrieved the shards of his broken blade.

She agreed; he did not.  It was more than obvious to her what his purpose had been this night.  Everything he had done had been calculated to anger Chaos and have it take that anger out on the princess.  For a thousand years Cosmos had been trying to corner Chaos in space, for ten years the Starlights had been tying to lure it to her and it had taken Endymion only a day to succeed.  A single day to provoke it into forgetfulness and recklessness so that it would follow the bait presented unheeding.

"No you do not," she agreed barely audibly.  "Everything you did was aimed at protecting Sere… Usagi and helping her to overcome Chaos.  None of us could have done what you did, Chaos would have allowed none of us the opportunity.  Your sadism was finally an asset and the torture and trap both served a purpose…"  Abruptly she swung the blade of her glaive at him.  He spun in a blur of motion and caught the haft of the weapon just below the blade.  She had expected no less and the palm of her hand met his cheek before he saw through the feint.

For a moment they stood there, the other Senshi looking on expressionlessly.  Then Endymion raised an eyebrow.  "I though you agreed with me."

"For the most part I did," she re-established with deadly sweetness then her false amity burned away to reveal the true source of her irritation with him.  "However mauling Serenity served no goal other than satisfying your own perverted lust."

For a moment she could have sworn that something approximating embarrassment glinted in those dark indigo orbs but it faded to once more be replaced by callousness.  For a time it appeared that he would let the blow slide and disdain from responding.  He released her glaive and stepped back from her, red handprint on his cheek a startling contrast to his pale skin.  "She is mine, to do with as I wish," he eventually informed her and then sneered.  "And if what I wish is unacceptable to you then talk to your queen.  She made the choice that led us to this moment and it was that choice that denied me my heart a thousand years ago.  Therefore it is entirely reasonable to say that everything I am now, monster, murderer, warmonger and abomination, is due to her.  Chew on that Senshi."  Without another word he turned from her and walked away.

Saturn let him because, at long last, she understood.  And she pitied him.  Nothing that they could do to him would be worse than what he had known for his whole existence.  He was more akin to her than she could have believed and more foreign than her greatest fears.  She was death balanced with rebirth but his was a death that had had its life stolen.  He had known a thousand years of incompletion, a thousand years of emptiness and no purpose but to make others hurt as he did and a thousand years of somehow knowing that whatever was missing had been denied to him by the actions of the Moon Kingdom.  Denied the sanctuary of madness by his own fundamental nature, it was no wonder that he hated them with such passion.  The only real question left to Saturn was why had he not completed the destruction he had begun?  

"What will happen now?"  Saturn turned to find Uranus looking at Starhealer.

The shortest of the Starlights shrugged tightly.  "She will exorcise Chaos from Galaxia and confine it in a prison of order.  She normally carries around a perfect crystal for the purpose but she used it to store Tin's form until she regained her starseed."

Neptune glanced up from Jupiter's side.  "So what will she use now?"

"Probably her sword," Starhealer commented, "It's made of crystal right?  Of Ginzuishou, which is even better."

Saturn froze.  The sword was indeed formed from Imperium Silver Crystal but there was a slight addition that the Starlights obviously had not thought about. "Perfect?" she asked with steadily rising anxiety, "But what about the rubies?"

The Starlight looked at her, perplexed.  "What rubies?"

Venus, though still traumatized, understood immediately but then, like Saturn, the events of a thousand years ago were engraved in her mind.  She gasped and her blue eyes met Saturn's with horrified awareness.  "The bastard's blood, the sword absorbed the bastard's blood!"

As if on cue, a tortured scream came from nearby.  Without discussion the Senshi that were able abandoned their fellows and ran to the source of the cry.  When they found it Saturn flinched back in fear.  Endymion lay crouched on the ground, snarling like an animal.  Flames of dark and evil magic licked at his form and once pale skin had become a sinister violet in the light of that ominous power.  The amalgamation of man and force of creation reared back and another terrible cry ripped itself loose from an already raw throat.  The back of Endymion's armour buckled and bulged outward.  The excruciating sound of metal tearing joined in a dreadful harmony with the unholy screams.  The armour burst in a rush of power and darkness as two feathered wings of ebon-black unfurled.

Saturn levelled her blade soundlessly and gathered her power but as fast as she raised it so did the strength of that which invaded the very being of Earth's prince grow.  The strength of the attack she sent against the agonised man was enough to incinerate worlds yet he shrugged it off, unnoticed.  The Senshi of death knew it to be in vain but she gathered her power for a second attempt but before she could loose the spell a ruthless hand found a crushing grip at her throat and the tip of an obsidian blade pregnant with chaotic power rested just under her chin.

Eyes that had no iris or whites but were solely black stared at her and she trembled.  "We will be back for you later Senshi."

As if she were no more than a rag doll, she was tossed into Pluto and Starmaker.   They scrambled back to their feet but by then it was too late.  The new Chaos was gone.

Saturn looked to the sky, suddenly empty of emotion.  Not far from her she knew she had friends that needed her help and the worst possible combination of enemies was now hunting queen Serenity's daughter but she could not bring herself to care any longer.  She had felt the power of Chaos as it ran through Endymion.  It was merging with the man's completely and seamlessly and turning two already awesome powers into something beyond nightmares.   

Chaos and Endymion. 

Endymion and Chaos.  

Both battled for dominance in a war that would eventually herald the end of everything Saturn loved.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moon gently laid her exhausted and soul-wounded friend on the even ground.  Under all of the dust was the smooth platform that held the prayer pillar and she could feel the almost warm presence of the stone monument behind her.  She took no notice of this or of the steadily growing apprehension that was building in her as she tended to her friend.

She met Galaxia's weary eyes with a gently smile.  "We won," she murmured, "It took us a while but Chaos is contained."

"I knew you would free me," the golden Senshi whispered, "I knew it."

"We did it together."

Galaxia weakly shook her head.  "Without you…" She trailed off as unconsciousness claimed her.

Moon straightened and for a short while just watched her sleeping friend.  They were together again, at last, so why did she still feel so… empty?  Memories of a pair of indigo eyes entered her thoughts and with a smile she looked up where the Earth hung in the sky.  He was her prince, it was a fundamental truth of her universe and a part of her had always known that it was so.

Suddenly she frowned.  Something was wrong, very wrong.  The golden warmth that had resided in her ever since she had allowed Endymion to kidnap her was gone…  No, not gone exactly… just changed.  It had been twisted and warped until it was barely recognisable.  What had been a warm and tender power now scorched her with its insistency.  It was darker and, in a way, more potent yet still so very brilliant.  It was almost as if someone had thrown something on the bright hearth fire of Endymion's soul and caused it to grow into an inferno where the light was obscured by its own brilliance.

Absently her hand caressed the hilt of her sword and then stilled as a heart-breaking realisation came to her.  Slowly she drew the sword and held it up before her eyes.  The crimson streaks flickered with a mocking evidence of her over-confidence.  

How could she have been so stupid?  So completely and utterly oblivious to the obvious?  She had _known_ what the red in the blade meant and still she had rashly used the blade to imprison Chaos!  But it had seemed like such a perfect solution…

Silently she rose to her feet.  It was her own fault but it was not only she who would pay for that mistake.  She could feel the power that was approaching and already it was more than the sum of Chaos and Endymion alone.  The sword hung from her fingers loosely and slowly she drifted towards the pillar.  Even covered with the accumulation of a millennium of neglect it still offered her a little strength.  Perhaps the part of her that was the moon princess was finally stirring?  Or perhaps it was just that taking up her role as Sailor Moon had reaffirmed her bonds to her people, no matter how distant they were.  She listlessly circled the column of stone.  Within she could feel her staff awaiting her call and she considered retrieving it.  Perhaps it would be better to face this as Cosmos but…  

To face what came as Cosmos, was to begin the hunt again and to once more become the law keeper of the universe…  For a moment she rested her forehead against the cool rock.  She could not repeat the last thousand years, not even with Galaxia at her side.  And she could not face Mamoru as her enemy.  

There was soft noise behind her and without looking she knew what it was.  "I should have known better than to hope that it was over at last.  It will never be over will it?  No matter what I do you will always escape and I will be forced to hunt you down again."

"You are wrong."  "You are wrong."

She blinked at the strange duality of the voice.  It was almost as if…  The golden inferno in her soul that linked her to Endymion roared.  She spun, sword raised by instinct, and found herself face to face with something that might either be her worst nightmare or most precious dream.

Not quite daring to hope she gradually lifted her eyes.  He/it/they was adorned by the same black armour he had been in when he had told her to flee but instead of a black cloak, feathery black wings held themselves a little behind him/it/them.  Bathed in power that made his/its/their skin seem purple, he/it/they looked almost alien to her but could it be… was it possible?  Then she looked into the bottomless black pits that were his/its/their eyes and her heart sank.  No.

With a heavy heart she lifted her sword and prepared to strike.  "I will not give in to you," she told it sadly.

"We did not expect you to."  "We are not stupid."

She froze in realisation and the hand that held her sword slowly dropped to her side.  It was not like it had been with Galaxia they were joining in truth!  There would be no miraculous rescue of Endymion's soul.  She felt tears beginning to gather in her eyes.  She could not fight them.  It was too much for anyone to ask this of her, even for the future of the universe.  She could feel those black orbs staring at her hungrily.  There was no sense of Mamoru in them at all.  It was as if everything time had done to scar his soul was causing his true self to retreat behind the protective covering that was his persona of Endymion.  All that she could sense was the dark prince and Chaos as they became one and the same.

"Daughter of Serenity…"  "Daughter of Order…"  

Moon closed her eyes.  So it had discovered the same knowledge that she had when she had communed with the Ginzuishou for the first time.  Now as both Chaos and Endymion it saw her as the daughter of their enemy, not as herself.  They were close enough to her now that she could feel their combined breath on her cheek.  She refused to open her eyes again.  Perhaps if she did not it would all prove to be a horrible dream… but it would not.  She knew that.

He/it/they started to force her backwards and she acceded to his/its/their wordless demand without argument.  She no longer could find the will to argue.  Step by step his/its/their terrible presence forced her back and her heart began to die.  Her spine hit the pillar and she stopped, unable to go back further.  She felt herself surrounded by warmth and her eyes drifted open reluctantly to find herself in a cocoon of feathers as her wings tangled with his/its/theirs.  She knew what the strange duality intended.  She had known from the moment that she had seen the hunger it those pitiless black depths.  

His mouth ruthlessly covered her own and his hands began to tear at her uniform.  For a moment she tensed.  It was still not too late, she could refuse to submit and she could kill he/it/them.  All that she needed to do was to raise her sword.  Her arm began to lift.  She flinched as the last of the cloth was ripped from her slender form and of its own will her hand positioned the sword to strike.  He chose that moment to pull his lips from hers and smirk down at her.    

There was no hint of blue in the lightless black and nothing that was human either.  Endymion and Chaos were combining and that should have forced her hand.  She knew the stories of Endymion and had lived the stories of Chaos.  She would be remiss as a Senshi to allow an amalgamation of the two exist but the crystal blade slipped from her fingers to impale the rocky ground.  She clenched her now-empty fist.  She could not kill him, no more than she could have killed Galaxia.  

She closed her eyes and waited for he/it/they to finish as they sought to vanquish their demons by conquering her.  To him/it/them she became her sire, she became her mother, she became the Senshi and everyone who had caused hatred within him/it/them.  When his/its/their careless touch caused her pain she gave no sign.  When her heart cried out at the treatment she silenced it.  This was her penance and reparation.  For a thousand years she had fallen short of what her duties had required of her and now she had failed completely.

In a union that began with no tenderness and no love came the culmination of one thousand years of enmity.  In an epitome of hatred Chaos debased the daughter of its enemy, Order, and subjugated the Senshi it had feared while Endymion gained the ultimate victory against the silver queen.  Yet in the moment that the man and woman truly joined a connection that had existed in potential for a millennium and yet had been known of for only a single day came to life.  

Golden power lit two souls and entwined them firmly and irrevocably.  For the first time in his life Endymion felt complete and in the attainment of balance came and inner peace that neither prince nor Chaos had known possible.  For a moment the universe paused and the two minds in a single body hesitated on the brink of an unknown future.  Then sapphire eyes opened and the choice was made.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He lay on his side, leaning on one elbow, while his free hand tenderly traced the line of his lover's collarbone.  He felt different but how much of that difference could be attributed to integrating Chaos into himself and how much should be accredited to finally having laid claim to his princess was unknown.  He was now the cage the contained Chaos, the supremely rational mind that had been his curse was now balanced by the entity that had merged with him and the echoing vaults of his mind had been filled with her… his Usako.  

Her gorgeous sapphire eyes fluttered open and an unpractised smile found its way to his lips.  "Greetings sleepy head."

For a moment she stared at him blankly and his heart clenched.  If she did not feel as he did…  Then she smiled brilliantly and he felt his worries melt away.  How could he have doubted?

"Your eyes are blue again," she told him softly.  

"We discussed it while you slept," he replied with a hint of teasing as he referred to his fragmentation before she had healed him.  That was how he thought of it, for without her he would have been devoured by Chaos.  "As it appears that you like blue eyes more than black we thought we might oblige you in this."

Her nose wrinkled.  "We?  Should I be concerned about possible multiple personality problems?"

 His amusement vanished as he regarded the treasure that had finally brought to him.  When his mind had been separate shards he had hurt her.  He knew that and it would haunt him forevermore.  "No," he promised her, "Never again."

"So who are you then?"  He blinked in surprise at the question and she smiled at him again but her eyes were serious.  "You are not Endymion anymore.  He was passionless you most definitely are not."  A pang of guilt shot through him, a novel emotion for him in any case, as he considered exactly how she had come to experience his passion.

"No I'm not," he agreed quietly.

She nodded calmly.  "And you are not Chaos.  They lacked balance, you do not."

"Because of you."

"Partly," she agreed, "But not all.  Most you did yourself.  So who is this man you have created that holds me so tightly.  Who is it that my heart beats in tandem with?  Whose soul is mine tied to so utterly?  Who is this man with me that I do not know and yet is my dearest companion?"

Her eyes held his openly and unafraid and so he answered the same way.  "He is not a nice man, he's not even a good one.  There is a beautiful angel who is his match.  She is the daughter of Order while he is the host of Chaos.  She is the Moon's princess while he is Earth's prince.  She is a healer while he has been a murderer.  She is life while he is death.  The first real emotion that he ever felt was towards her.  He has a soul and it lives because of her.  That soul is now and always will be hers to command.  He is Mamoru."

"Mamo-chan…" she smiled at him.  He leaned towards her and kissed her with the tenderness and gentleness that had been lacking before.

"Usako…" he murmured and drew back before he lost the ability to think.  "Let's leave.  This moon brings out the worst in me and its queen is no better.  Earth does not need a prince, especially not one such as I.  Your duties as Cosmos will lead you into parts unknown and I will follow.  Let's go far away and never return."

"I cannot," she answered and he frowned.  

She glanced to the side.  When he followed her gaze he saw her sword stuck in the ground not far away and understood instantly what he had forgotten.  She was doubly destined in the worst possible way.  He stroked her taunt skin gently as he thought.

"Free me," she whispered.  He knew without words what she was asking.  His fingers stilled and he looked down at her.  It was the first time in a thousand years that he had worked the magic of life and now she asked this of him?  "Please…"

"I…"

"Please…" she begged again.  Her eyes were desperate and revealed more than a measure of the burden that a double destiny laid on her.  Mamoru did not want to do this.  He was a cruel man but not that cruel, still he could not refuse her this.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded.  "I am impulsive but I do think my actions through.  This is the best way."  

He sighed.  "So be it."  He leaned forward and pressed his frame to hers.  White feathers and black danced in the nothingness around them as they celebrated their union openly beneath the sky for all the stars to witness.  Golden lengths of hair tangled around them and bound them closer tighter.  His lips and hands wordlessly worshipped her and this time she responded in kind.  Their second joining was one of love and purpose.  When the heights had been attained and surpassed and their bodies once more began to calm, Mamoru reached into her being with power and twisted.  At first there was only the slightest of discomfit but that would not hold true for long.

The ebon-haired man's eyes were filled with apology as they met his lover's living sapphire gaze.  Then he roused his power fully to action.  His eyes were dry yet and he hardened his heart as her body began to contort in pain; still he persisted in his mission to grant her request.

He succeeded and she screamed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Galaxia stirred slowly.  For a moment the freedom she enjoyed disorientated her and then she stretched, glorying in her control of her body.  Her silent, semi-conscious movements halted instantly when a scream reached her ears.  Her rust coloured eyes snapped opened and she jerked upright.  Her body protested but she ignored its complaints.  She might be back to normal but it would take time for her body to recover from the abuse and changes that Chaos had forced upon her.  

Another scream came and she rolled to her feet.  Stumbling slightly she hurried in the direction from which the screams came.  She passed a tall column of rock, absently noticing that the staff of Cosmos had been hidden within, but as soon as she passed the rock she froze.

The crystal sword, whose bearer's dedication she had witnessed, stood like a solitary, weary sentinel.  It rested in the ground crookedly, as if it had been discarded in haste but what could cause her friend to disregard the blade so Galaxia did not know.  It reflected the starlight that illuminated the colourless lunar surface and on the blade crimson flashed in stark contrast with the silver blade.  Slowly the fresh blood snaked its way down the blade along the path marked by another's blood a millennium before.

Her gaze needed to seek little further to find the source of the crimson liquid.  Golden hair spilled across the ground, the gilded strands becoming scarlet where they tangled in dark puddles.  

Secretive indigo orbs caught her gaze within their vicelike grip.  A presence that she had believed she would never again sense transfixed her and rendered her incapable of action.  Unshatterable will echoed throughout the crater-pocked landscape and its demands were met.  Magic rolled over her and she unwillingly stood by as nature was distorted.

A dark eyebrow rose in an expressionless face as a wordless question was asked and she regarded him, appalled.  Was there nothing that he was not capable of?  Was there no depth to which he would not sink?  Was there no height to which he could not scale?  The scene before her revealed enough for her to judge.

Power.  Blood.  Chaos.

And so was she answered.  Her hesitation vanished.  Weak as she was, she stepped forward and raised her own power.  A cacophony of magic resulted as they fought for supremacy but within the disharmony a symphony of strength was born and, almost by accident, the terrible spell was completed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moment the abhorrent mixture of man and concept invaded my daughter's being I knew.  It was not difficult to discern, indeed it was anything but, for the Ginzuishou also knew and it was not pleased.  

It was not for this that it had taken mortal form.  

_It was not for its daughter's pain that it had created said daughter.  _

_When it's opposite had so vilely attacked the avatar it had brought into being, the Ginzuishou… _Order_… knew rage._

_In a moment between rape and lovemaking the universe trembled on the edge of destruction and none was aware but I that my lover of long ago prepared to destroy existence on the behalf of our child.  Needless to say, I was more than slightly bemused when it calmed in an instant, though it did not return to its normal state of dormancy.  How was I to know then that it had sensed the strange crossroads Endymion and Chaos had reached?  How was I to know that it was not only contented, but also intrigued, by the turn of events?_

_At that time in my life I had believed myself wise.  It is only now that my vast ignorance has become blindingly obvious to me.  I am but a single speck of dust in this immense reality and my perception of this reality is that of a speck of dust: limited._

_It is not and never has been for me to judge._


	8. 8 of 8

Hello to all who've ploughed through to the end of this.  Normally I try to only let one or two chapters out at a time so that no one gets sick of it but I'm sickof it sitting on my computer.  Please, please let me know what you thought of it.  Were there any plot holes?  Did I go out of character as I described them?  Please tell me what made you like or dislike this, I'm begging here!  I need to know.

Thank you and thank you for reading.

Draegyn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Choices We Make: part eight

By Draegyn

_Dragynne2000@yahoo.com.au_

In a night that would change the universe the Ginzuishou, the physical incarnation of Order and the crystal that my people guard, took on mortal form.  Its intent was to create a being that would be capable of meeting the approaching danger, of opposing Chaos.  It chose me to be the receptacle of its essence that I may bear and nurture a child such as had never before been known.

I gave that child away.

When I learned of the magnitude of my choice I was stricken.  It was far greater than I had believed possible.  Who was I to make such a decision, I who have shown myself to be lacking in so many ways?  How is it possible that I was fit to make such a choice, a choice that would change everything?

And yet, when I did, it changed nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pluto did not understand what had happened.  In fact she did not understand most of what she had been required to do since the appearance of her princess' enemy and that was unheard of for the guardian of time, she who lived the past and future along with the present.  Yet from the moment the Gates of Time had trembled with the force of Chaos' approach her sensitivity to the currents of time had been wrenched from her.  No, not then, it had been a thousand years before when a tall form had stepped through the unstable gates and caught the Senshi's magenta gaze with her own.

'The strands of destiny will reweave the pattern torn asunder.  You will not interfere in this.  Irrespective of your own beliefs you will not only allow it to proceed unhindered by any, even our fellow Senshi, you will play the part that fate has cast for you.  Even when it costs you your princess.  Do not attempt to keep her bound to us and to our fellow Senshi.  It would only delay the inevitable.  Endymion and Serenity must unite.'

Those searching eyes were hard as they wordlessly demanded acknowledgement from her and filled with an ache that she could not comprehend.  Not then, but she knew at that moment it would only be a matter of time until she did.  In time it would be she who bore the signs of grief and weariness.  It would be she with the unbearable load of sorrow.  Yet she could do no more than nod and watch as her future self once more returned to her correct position in the time stream, the gates closing with a hollow boom that rang of finality.  Disorder had run amok in the Senshi's mind.  Bare hours before she had felt the future shatter and then reform in a different cast yet shards of memories of that last future remained.

Now, in this time, the past had been burned into her mind yet hints of what could have been remained to haunt her.  Endymion could have been so much more than what he had become.  No, not 'more' exactly, yet he could have been a king she would have been honoured to serve.  Now however he was beyond redemption.  Not even Cosmos had the power to resurrect that future.  Endymion was evil, that was a truth that she had never questioned and yet it was for her to drive her princess into his arms.  She did not understand yet she had obeyed.

She had not contradicted her sister Senshi when they had questioned the Senshi of life, even though Pluto knew more than enough to trust the silver-haired woman implicitly.

She had not stepped in as they alienated Cosmos although she knew that they would be driving her away.

She had not accepted the hand that had been offered to her in friendship, though she knew that if she had she would have been gaining a precious treasure.

She did this, as she had been commanded, and yet she did not understand.  _Why_?

And now, centuries since she had been commanded to this unwanted path, Endymion had been possessed by the very entity that Cosmos had been born to slay.  What possible cause, aside from that of destruction, could the union of Serenity and Endymion have served in this time?  It had only made the princess vulnerable when she could least afford it.

Pluto straightened in anger.  She was the Senshi of time!  It was her duty to prevent such debacles.  It was her duty to protect Serenity not to hurt her!

Now, her part in the war behind her, she looked to the sky and endured the agony that was ignorance.  Around her the Senshi wordlessly gathered, Greater and Lesser, each of them anguished.  Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury were little more than cripples as they leaned against their sisters for support.  

"He'll have gone after her," Venus spat.  Her face was colourless except for a small line of red on her cheek that pulsed rapidly with the blonde Senshi's angry heart.  

"Of course he will," Uranus agreed, "With the power of Chaos inside him?  He'll go after her and then he'll be back to finish Earth off."

"No," Venus disagreed, her loathing blatant.  "The bastard will capture Serenity and then he'll go after the queen.  He'll use the daughter to torture the mother and then he'll destroy every last speck of dust that bears some relationship with the kingdom.  It'll be the Reckoning all over again only this time it will not be we who brings it down upon Lunarian soil and it will not be invaders who feel the power's edge."

None argued with the certain woman.  It seemed all too likely to each of them, Pluto among them, however a glance at the Starlights showed no such certainty.  Ocean-blue eyes did not avoid her searching magenta gaze and in them the Senshi of time found not hatred but grief.  An awe-inspiring sorrow the like of which Pluto had seen but once, in her future self, and still she was ignorant of the cause.

"Endymion is not Chaos," Starmaker stated coldly and the faces of all three Starlights were closed.  

Starfighter's voice was abstracted as she murmured, "Destiny and fate were her midwives.  They were present for her birth as they are now, can you not feel their web tightening around their favourite child?  They will not relinquish now what they have strived so long to ensure."

"And what's that?" Venus mocked weakly, "The creation of the ultimate evil?  Chaos was not enough for them…"

"No," Pluto interrupted finally.  "No!" she repeated more strongly.  "Their intent is and has always been to create a union that will endure beyond time and death… and I have done my part, may Ser… Usagi forgive me."

"What?" Jupiter and Uranus spat together.  "You wanted this?"

"Be still!" Starfighter lashed out.  The Senshi fell silent at the raw emotion in their Warrior sister's voice.  "We three," the Starlight motioned to her two fellows as she continued, "Have felt the truth of Pluto has just told you from the moment Cosmos set foot upon your moon."

"You don't care that the greatest Senshi that will ever be born is at the mercy of an amalgamation of the two greatest abominations of all time?" Venus growled as she pulled herself upright.  The scar on her cheek was a crimson brand as her fury warred with her weakness.  "You don't care about the utter _wrongness_ of what you're saying?!"  

"What's done is done Venus!" Saturn stated coldly and within her dark eyes Pluto saw the understanding that they all had sought from the moment that Endymion's intentions had become known.  Saturn nodded slightly to Pluto, a silent admission to the elder Senshi's admission, before she straightened her small form.  "But for now we must return to the moon, the queen will wish to see us and we are no longer needed here."

Venus looked to argue yet again but the eyes of the Greater Senshi blazed.  Finally they had reached the end of their patience… or, Pluto thought to herself as a wave of disquiet writhed in her gut, perhaps they knew something that Pluto and her sister Soldiers did not.

Then she, too, understood their impatience.  For and endless moment the universe seemed to teeter on a knife's edge and unconsciously the guardian of time held her breath lest she be the one to tip the balance.  Then, as slowly and unstoppably as an avalanche, all that was changed.  For the briefest instant existence sang and she who was attuned to time's currents felt their eddies become a raging torrent.  A universe that had been knocked askew and lost its way returned to its rightful path as a weal in the timeline that even she had been ignorant of was healed.

"What the Hell was that?" Jupiter's down to earth question broke the following silence.  

Pluto attempted to break herself free of the abstraction which remained with her with little success.  While her sisters muttered shocked questions vertigo assailed her as the future changed and changed again in her power's perception.  What could be was unknown to her for the first time in her service as Senshi.  Potential future after potential future raced through her mind's eye, none the same yet a single constant prevailed.  As the future exploded into infinity and Pluto battled for her sanity in a maelstrom of possibilities the common factor in each future provided her with the lifeline that she needed to endure the time-storm.  

A steadying hand touched her shoulder and power that refused to be denied drew her back to the waking world.  Magenta eyes met understanding brown and Pluto wordlessly thanked Starmaker for her aid.

A glance around her showed that her companions had fixed concerned eyes upon her.  "What happened?" Neptune enquired gently.

Pluto opened her mouth and yet no words emerged.  How could she explain a fundamental change in the nature of time?  She hunted for words and yet none were adequate.  In the end she said simply, "Time has been set free."

As she expected it explained nothing to her friends but before frustration could grow the Warrior who had saved the guardian once did so again.  

"She means that something has happened to increase the variability of the future exponentially."  Starmaker looked meaningfully at her fellow Starlights as she continued.  "Before this the stability of the timeline decreased as its ability to change increased and an equilibrium had been formed which meant that although time was robust it was almost perfectly uniform.  A new force has now been added to the equation, one which will provide the stability that the timeline requires to evolve into a more flexible entity."

Pluto nodded.  "Apparently Fate and Destiny have arranged for a little more give in the timeline to make their job easier."  More than one of the Senshi listening frowned and opened their mouth to comment.  Whether it was to ask for a clearer explanation or what it was that could have triggered the alteration Pluto never learned for once more her universe went mad.

The world was twisted by unnatural magic and a scream of agony echoed though her mind.  She staggered only to collide with the unsteady form of one of her sister Senshi.  A torrent of pain inundated not only her but also her sisters and their voices melded in an unholy wail as the tried to expel the sensation that had been thrust upon them in any manner available.  

Power.  Blood.  Chaos.

A silver strength that they had not noticed was a part of them faltered and dread hit them with the force of stars colliding.  Pluto forced her eyes open.  The Starlights had dissolved in three showers of light, leaving the Planetary Senshi to find their own way to the source of the weakening silver power.  It took the unsteady soldiers less than a second to remember the colour of the power that had devoted their lives to serve. 

"The queen!"

Venus' eyes narrowed.  "He went after her," she hissed and without further ado she vanished in a swirl of orange power.  Eyes widened in horrified understanding and elemental strengths roused and the wielders translocated themselves to the Moon.  Even as Pluto was about to blindly follow the significance of the Starlights absence registered and she knew then that she was about to go to the wrong power.  It was too late to alter her destination though and with a cry of anguish she felt her magic sweep her away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Venus paced the length of the chamber with a quick, impatient tread.  She felt as if she were suffocating which might be due to her recent torture or it might be because of her current helplessness.  Relief that her queen was well and unthreatened warred with the chagrined realisation that her lack of forethought and left her no avenue of aid to bring to her princess. Her princess who, even as the blonde Senshi did nothing, was being torn apart by the most loathsome monster Venus had had the misfortune to meet.

"Where are they?" she snarled in frustrated fury.  In her mind she was planning in detail the torture she would inflict on Endymion, be he Chaos or no, for the heinous act he had perpetrated.

One of her teacher's pale eyebrows lifted in stinging rebuke.  "If you had not acted so precipitously perhaps you would know.  Instead you allowed your judgement to be undermined by your emotions.  A Senshi cannot afford to allow her hatred to rule her as you have done…"

Venus felt as if the dark prince himself had struck her in the stomach.  "You believe that this is my fault…?"  How dare he?  She had devoted her life to ensuring that Endymion would never again threaten the queen and everything she had ever done had been to that end.  She had done all within her power to see that Endymion would be de-clawed… and she had failed.  Her hatred of Endymion was laid bare and she finally saw what that hatred had concealed: inadequacy. 

Suddenly she felt her nervous energy leave her in a rush and Artemis was forced to leap forward to catch her as her legs gave out beneath her.

"I've failed," she whispered, "Great Serenity, what kind of pathetic excuse for a Senshi am I?"

Artemis' expression softened somewhat.  "One that, for the most part, does her name proud."

Venus felt the scar on her cheek keenly as her face flushed in shame and memories of a day long passed yet never forgotten returned as clear as if they had been made the previous day.  "No, this is the second time Endymion has gotten past me to threaten those who I am supposed to protect.  He should never have gotten within a league of the queen on the day of the Reckoning and he should never have learned that the princess even existed."  She fixed Artemis' blue gaze with her own.  "I'm supposed to keep them safe and yet I cannot protect them fro…" She fell silent, unwilling to finish.

"You cannot protect them from him," Artemis spoke the words for her. 

Tears welled in her eyes.  "I'm Senshi," she whispered, "And I'm still not strong enough to stop him.  I'll never be strong enough…"

"You are not expected to be…"

"But he's _mortal_!  A mere human and yet he toyed with me as if I were a child.  He ripped my power from me without a thought and I could not stop him when he stripped me much less when he used my princess to satisfy his perverted lusts."  Her mind shied away from the memory of her power being wrenched from her, even the humiliation of being debased by the dark prince was preferable to reliving the hell that had been inflicted on her for those short and yet unending moments her Senshi calling had been stripped from her.  She shuddered unconsciously.  "What good am I?" she whispered in despair.

"With a judge so harsh as you are upon yourself, my Venus, what good would any of us be?"

Venus opened eyes that she had not even known that she had closed and stared into twin pools of silver.  Queen Serenity reached out and gently cupped Venus' cheek and the Senshi felt her monarch's endless compassion and empathy in that slight touch yet she still turned her face away.

"I'm sorry, so very sorry my queen.  He's out there somewhere with the princess at his mercy and she hurts and it's because I could not keep her safe from him…"

The hand at her cheek inexorably forced her to look back.  "Not even the crystal could have kept them apart, it informed me of that itself."

Venus pulled away from Artemis and the queen unsteadily and shook her head in denial.  "No!  She is your daughter, she deserves someone better than that monstrous bastard."

"You mean that you believe that I deserve someone better than Endymion for a son-by-marriage."  Venus flushed when she realised that that was exactly what she had meant.  For all she had revered the absent princess as a child and anticipated her return as an adult, her queen would always come before the incomprehensible woman that her princess had become.  

"You're right," she admitted, "I do.  You are worth a hundred of her, Greater Senshi or no." 

Serenity chuckled sadly.  "I am honoured that you believe so but if I were ever to shoulder her burden then I would be crushed beneath its weight.  For all the idiosyncrasies that your sister Senshi have described to me, the truth of Cosmos is so much more.  Her concerns as those of realties while mine are solely of our people…"

"Which to me is of more value," Venus insisted.  She straightened and faced her queen directly.  "I am a Lunarian woman who is more than honoured to serve as Venus' Planetary Senshi in your court.  I have laboured for you and beside you as I have with your daughter and I believe that while she knows of sacrifice and duty she does not know and will not ever understand what it is to be of the White Moon. If not for her own sake then for yours she should have denied whatever was between her and the Terran prince."

Venus raised her chin and resolutely commanded her legs not to tremble with weakness as she awaited for the rebuke that must surely be hers for speaking in such a manner.  Artemis regarded her inscrutably from behind the queen until with a sudden frown his attention turned to something only he could hear.  Venus paid no attention to her teacher's abstraction, her focus on the Silver Queen.

Serenity's eyes seemed to stare inward rather than at a specific point.  "One thousand years ago I gave her away.  Had I kept her perhaps it would be her, not I, that you would now be so stalwartly defending… or perhaps nothing would be different, we will never know now.  One day ago I allowed her to leave me once more, this time because had she stayed she would have challenged me to change, to evolve and to become more than I could bare to be.  So I let her go, admitting to the both of us that she had surpassed me and that I feared her."  The woman paused for a moment and then her eyes focused on Venus'.

"One thousand years ago her absence was the goad that made him strive beyond mediocrity and her presence now spurs him on to even greater heights.  He would never even think of declining the challenge that her very existence issues to those around her.  How can he not be worthy of her?"

Venus frowned.  "If he's so worthy of her then why did her screams echo in our minds?"

Serenity's smile became a bitter twist of the lips.  "It does not necessarily follow that a great man will be a good one, my Senshi.  I like it even less than you."  A hard light came to Serenity's silver eyes and Venus sensed in the monarch a tangle of emotions akin to her own.  Silver and blue exchanged a wordless communication that spoke of centuries of a common enmity which events had now frustrated the possibility of any closure.  At her queen's urging and denied the release of vengeance, Venus did the only thing that would allow her to remain unbroken; she stopped hating the prince.

However, her personal vendetta aside, Venus' responsibility remained. "What he did to the inner Senshi and I is nothing to even the echo of what he is inflicting on her.  We have to find and stop him."

 "Not even the Ginzuishou can locate him now," the silver-haired monarch replied in sorrow.  "And I forfeited the right to any bond I might have shared with my child long ago.  We have no way of finding them."

"Actually Serenity that is no longer so," Artemis re-entered the conversation with a sudden passion.  Both women stared at him in surprise and he bared his teeth in grim satisfaction while he stalked past them and hurled the chamber doors open.  Then he stepped aside to reveal the Moon Kingdom's Senshi escorting a single stranger.  

The stranger stepped into the light and Venus blinked in awe.  So this was Galaxia?  The signs of Chaos' tenure in her body were gone yet her time in its possession had left its mark.  She stood, slightly bent, the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders and her arms hanging limply at her sides while something dark dripped from her fingertips.  For all of her power she looked so weary.  Serenity's eyes widened in recognition and hope only to fall again at the sheer pity contain in the Warrior's face.

"Galaxia…?" she whispered.  For the first time in Venus' memory Serenity's calm façade was shattered.

The Senshi blinked and struggled for words.  "Sister…"  She trailed off and raised her hands, palm upward, in supplication.  All near paled when the movement presented trails of drying blood for all to see.  Even as they watched rivulets of the viscous liquid moved pass her elbows towards her upper arms.  From the entrance Jupiter swore softly but Galaxia paid no heed.  "Cosmos… your daughter… she was…  Chaos, he…"

"_He_?" Mars snarled and Venus, too, felt a memory of her old hatred.  Within her a cry for justice arose and her Senshi's magic coiled in readiness.  Galaxia's keen gaze moved to her and the Warrior of the Greater Kindred frowned.  Venus felt her own power silenced by a greater strength.

"Be still!" Galaxia's voice snapped in an unknowing echo of an ebon-haired Starlight.  She turned back to face the horror-stricken queen with an impervious poise.  "Serenity of the White Moon, we of the Greater Kindred summon you and the circle of Soldiers whom you rule to stand witness.  How do you answer?"

Stand witness?  Venus frowned in confusion.  Her liege drew the rags of her composure about her yet the recovery was fragile.  Her silver head nodded in acquiescence.  

"So be it!" Galaxia announced and her power rose in a surge and engulfed them.  

Between one moment and the next Venus found herself deposited with her sister Senshi on the Moon's surface.  Disorientated, she stumbled but quickly regained her equilibrium and straightened to examine her surroundings.  It took less than a second to identify her surroundings.  It was, after all, where her nightmare had begun a millennium before.  Slowly she turned to face what she knew in her bones would be there.

The prayer pillar rose from the ground with covered by the debris that had encased it during the Reckoning.  And below it, his sinister, dark eyes watching them with black pleasure, the shadowed form of their nemesis crouched.  The three Starlight Senshi flanked him and even though the presence of Chaos was blatant in his carriage, Venus would never think of him as other than Endymion.  

His armour was gone without a trace and leaving him in only the simple, pitch guard uniform that had been under it.  The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the blood that glistened there contrasted sharply against his pale skin.  The same blood that covered the ground at his feet and that dripped from a lonely crystal sword that was struck in the stone.  The blood that even now pooled beneath a form covered in a black cloth at the monster's feet.  

The blood that came from her princess.

So shocked were they that none acted on the fury that grew within them.  For an ominous moment silence reigned as Venus and her fellows absorbed the scene.  Their Greater Kindred looked on impassively yet Venus did not even acknowledge their presence.  She fought to remember that her hatred would destroy her rather than the object of the emotion yet it was a losing battle.  Her inner war was abandoned at the sound of a body falling.  Serenity knelt on her hands and knees, her eyes transfixed by the unmoving form wrapped in what must have been the prince's black cloak.

"How?" the normally melodic voice was hoarse with pain as it addressed the golden Senshi who had summoned them.  "How could you allow this Galaxia?!  She was your sister!"

The being that was both Chaos and Endymion did not allow the Warrior to answer.  "Don't blame her Serenity.  She had no more choice than the rest of us in this.  We simply played out the course that you had chosen."  

With an oath, Uranus lunged through the group of Soldiers and towards the man, Venus acted a fraction of a second after her only to find herself pulled to a halt be a thin hand.  Venus looked at her captor to find Galaxia shaking her head.

"We must not provoke him, his only equal lies at his feet, leaving us inadequate to the task.  For the sake of everything living, we cannot interfere now."

"We can't just leave her to stand up to him alone!" Venus hissed back, furious.  Not far from her she saw the Starhealer and Starmaker restraining Uranus while Starfighter gave her own whispered commands to the other, unhappy Senshi.

Galaxia did not relent.  "That it is what it means to be of the Greater Kindred," she murmured, "Serenity knows this and whether she also understands that in this time and place she must live it, does not matter.  She owes a debt to her daughter and this is her payment."  Venus frowned but surrendered.   

Ignoring the dissention between the Senshi, Endymion leaned forward, across the shrouded form of their fallen princess and snarled with a fury that took Venus' breath away, so passionate was he.  "You made me, foolish woman, your actions set me on this path and now you've got to live with it.  You have lost her… then again," he sneered with pure scorn.  "You never had her did you?  For all that the almighty Ginzuishou entrusted you with her, you gave her away.  You self-righteous bitch, you've lost and I've won!"

"You believe this to be a victory?" Serenity asked incredulously.  Finally she looked up and all could see the crystal tears that poured down her pale cheeks.

"Oh yes," he breathed in exultant triumph.  A soft sigh that came from nowhere and, while silver eyes widened, his dark eyes became startling indigo.  With care, he moved slightly and gently unravelled the cloak from the princess' still body.  Even when it was completely untangled from the naked and bloodied form of Serenity's daughter, the monster still held it as if it were fragile.

He looked over the assembled women, Senshi of a kind all, and smiled grimly.  The cloak fell from his hands to reveal what had been protectively nestled within.  "The victory goes to me Moon queen.  'Tis my daughter who will rule after you and 'tis her hand that will be upon the Ginzuishou."  Exposed to the hostile and barren environment, protected only by her sire's power, the newborn whimpered and in answer her mother sighed a second time.  Venus blinked and with baited breath looked at the abused body more closely.  There, almost imperceptible yet growing stronger by the second, were signs of life.

Cosmos lived!

Tearing her eyes away from her unconscious princess she glared at the monster.  He smiled, satisfied with the pain that he had provoked by his deception.   He motioned peremptorily for the queen to come to him and when she did not power that was an alloy of Endymion and Chaos and yet more than both roused like quicksilver and coerced the queen to her feet.  Silver limned her briefly as the Silver Crystal entered the battle of wills but it died almost as quickly as it came, leaving the queen at her foe's mercy.

"Your lover is wiser than you are Serenity," Endymion jeered when she stood before him.  "But then," he added, "We have already discussed just how much the fool you are have we not?"  She flinched yet instead of heaping more verbal abuse upon her, Venus was surprised to see him carefully pass the sleeping babe to her.

"Her name is Chiba Usagi and into your care I give her.  Do yo accept?"

The queen nodded dumbly.

"Witnessed," Starfighter proclaimed clearly and Venus nodded in hasty confirmation, followed quickly by the rest of the Moon Kingdom's circle of Senshi.

Galaxia voice seethed with satisfaction, "Witnessed and may she bring joy to your realm."

"I am sure she will."  Serenity cradled her like the precious treasure she was, the child's sire forgotten the moment she was placed in her grandmother's arms.  Or perhaps not… whether it was in concern for the child in an airless environment or from fear that she would be taken back, as soon as the young Usagi was secured Serenity vanished.  One by one her Senshi bowed hurried farewells and leaving the prince's oppressive presence until only Venus and the Greater Kindred remained, thus the confrontation ending anticlimactically.

Venus looked at Endymion strangely.  Such a generous act was beyond him.  The weight of her gaze caused him to turn in her direction before he dismissed her as unimportant and knelt next to his lover once more.  Galaxia squeezed her arm in a warning that Venus did not need.  

"Why?" she asked simply.

Galaxia smiled sadly.  "Even he is not so cruel as to inflict a child with a father such as himself."

"It is enough that he possesses her mother," Starfighter added quietly as she and her fellow Starlights came up behind them.  Without a word Galaxia nodded at Venus and released her before going with the Starlights to their fallen friend's side.  The awesome strength that was Endymion-Chaos wove an intricate net and infused strength into his sleeping mate.

"Mamo-chan?"  It was a sleepy whisper that dashed whatever remaining hopes Venus might have had about convincing her princess to shun the Terran prince.

"Usako."  His reply was a murmur that caressed the recipient.  

In that moment of vulnerability Venus, the Senshi of love, sensed the bond between the two.  Until that moment she had been unable to believe that he could care for the princess but, her mind unclouded by hate or preconceptions, the emotion between the two… between… _Mamoru_ and Cosmos was undeniable.  Venus hung back from the small group, unable to join them, unwilling to leave them.

"It's done?" the weakened Senshi asked as she struggle upright.  

"Aye," Galaxia agreed, "Done and witnessed."

"How do you feel Odango?" Starfighter murmured anxiously.

There was a small chuckle in the voice as she replied.  "Sore.  I understand why nature takes its time now, hastening a pregnancy _hurts_!"

"What did you expect?" Starmaker retorted, "You didn't give your body time to adjust, it's no wonder that there was so much blood!"

Cosmos grunted as Mamoru helped her to her feet.  "What can I say?" She paused, winced and pressed an unsteady hand against her stomach.

"You are free, that is all that matters," Mamoru stated as Starhealer handed him his abandoned cloak and he wrapped it around his lover.

"So it is," she agreed and leaned into his embrace.  

Cosmos' fellow Warriors watched the couple kiss in appreciation until Starhealer hissed to Starfighter, "How long can they keep that up for?"

Cosmos broke the kiss and leaned her head on Mamoru shoulder as she chuckled softly.  "Fine," she sighed, "I can wait…"

"I don't think I can," Mamoru interjected, surprising Venus by revealing the promise of a sense of humour.

Cosmos merely kissed him softly once more and then pushed herself away from him.  "Make yourself useful instead and get my staff!"

"As my lady commands."

Leaving her to the care of the Starlights he strode up the remaining steps to the Prayer Pillar and, without a qualm, reached into the substance of the marble monument and withdrew a winged staff.  He was about to return to the small group on the platform when a thought struck him.  With a smooth movement his free hand seemed to draw the obsidian blade of Chaos from nothingness and implanted it before the pillar in the same place that his lover's crystal sword had waited for a millennium.

Deliberately he looked over to her and Venus was not surprised to realise that he had not forgotten her presence.  "This is for Chibi-Usa and her alone.  Anyone else who tries to draw it… well what happened to me when I wielded Usako's blade will be nothing in comparison.  Spread the warning Venus."

"I will," she agreed quietly, aware of the eyes of five Celestial Warriors focusing on her.  "And, now that she has no more need for it, you will take Serenity's crystal sword I presume."

"It was created for her protection and that is what I intend to see that it does."

"I think that's what it wants too, otherwise why else would it have allowed you to mark it all those years ago?"

"Perhaps…"  He raised an eyebrow at her.  "Are you being civil to me Mina-chan?"

"Don't get your hopes up Chiba-san."

"Ah."

Venus touched the scar on her cheek.  "I'm just taking responsibility for my actions.  It's not only because of the queen that we are where we are.  This moment is due to the consequences of our own choices as well as hers.  I never gave you a chance Mamoru but I don't think it would have made a difference if I had however…" she paused and turned to Cosmos.  "I also never gave you a chance princess, not really and I'm so very sorry for that."  She smiled painfully.  "I know that there is nothing that I can do to make up for the pain I caused you but for what it's worth I was wrong and I apologise."

Cosmos nodded with a wistful smile.  "I understand and I wish we could have been friends Venus."

"So do I Serenity.  So do I."

Cosmos sighed and then shrugged the cloak of her shoulders.  Before the heavy black cloth hit the ground a slender hand scooped it up and a single shake rid it of the filth that coated it.  The Senshi of life straightened, her clean, pale skin softly glowing, while the dust and blood that had coated her vanished as if it had never been.  The black cloak she held clashed with the folds of the golden swathes of material that draped about her.  Her silver hair spilled in from two heart-shaped buns and the crescent on her brow bloomed into an eight-pointed star.  Sapphire eyes bid her a wordless goodbye and Cosmos turned her back on the past.

Mamoru moved to her side and she reached around to pin his own cloak in place before taking back her winged staff.  He gestured and the crystal sword flew to his hand as if going home.  Blue clashed with blue and their cloaks billowed around them despite the stillness.  Their forms wavered and the cloaks dissolved into a storm of feathers and without a backwards glance they launched themselves with heave of their powerful wings.

Venus watched after them, the angel of purity and her dark mate, as they shrank in the distance.

"We need to go if we don't want to lose them," Starhealer interrupted her reverie, "Farewell Venus."

Venus turned the four remaining.  "You're going with them?  Not back to Kinmoku?"

"I think we all agree on that," Starmaker agreed.

Starfighter smiled wryly at Galaxia.  "You and the Odango are going to need all the help you can get to keep that one out of trouble.  So if you don't mind…?"

"Be my guest," the golden Senshi answered with a smile.  "I think you might be correct.  Aside from that of course is that they are going to be wretched company until…"

Seeing the elder Senshi grope for words Venus snorted.  "Until they get past the honeymoon stage?"

"Exactly," Galaxia sighed.  "Ah well, we must be leaving.  Fare thee well Sister."

"Farewell Galaxia."

"Ditto for us Mina-chan," Starhealer told her and her sister Starlights nodded, Starfighter's slightly cool manner thawing somewhat.  Then, without waiting for her reply, magic roared and where they had stood four stars shot through the sky towards the stars.

"Good-bye," Venus whispered and she too disappeared, leaving the grey landscape unbroken bar a single strip of darkest black where another blade awaited the moon princess that would wield it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And so they left, never to be seen on the White Moon again.  Of us all only Pluto and Saturn met them again, first when the group entered Limbo to seal the Gates of Time and the Gates of Death.  It was at that time that the fragile friendship between my daughter and Pluto blossomed and the tenuous understanding Saturn possessed of Endymion strengthened.  In times of need since then it is those two of all my Senshi that are the ones that are summoned to render assistance.

Yet at that time, they, like the rest of us moved on as best we could.  The inner Senshi recovered fully from their torture, a testament to the strength of the four. Pluto dealt with the consequence of perceiving a mutable future while both she and Saturn attempted to adjust to freedom.  Uranus and Neptune remained for the most part unchanged, however, the presence of Cosmos will not leave anyone the same.  I believe that it was my granddaughter more than anything that saved us all.  Her father left Chaos in his wake as a matter of course before he merged with the fundamental essence of entropy and her mother's absence left a hollow in my people that would never be filled.  

My daughter was… is a part of us and that cannot be denied, particularly when the truth of her parentage began to spread.  Still she is Cosmos and her duties could not be denied thus the void remains unfilled.  It was a new world, one in which there was no certainty.  A very fearsome thing.  I believe events would have taken an ill turn after that if it had not been for one thing.

The constant that Fate and Destiny had brought about.

The one immutable that could never be changed. 

No matter what choice had been made in the past and would be made in the future they would be eternal.  Endymion and Serenity, Chaos and Cosmos or Mamoru and Usagi, they would remain locked together in an eternal cycle of love that would never be possible to break.  And my Chibi-Usa is a physical symbol of that love for my people.

Many times have I questioned my actions throughout that time.  I have asked what if?  Should I?  Might it?  We have the freedom to choose our own destiny now, for the workings of Fate and her sister are so distant as to be unfelt.  The future is now a wealth of possibilities yet for me it is unalterably fixed.  I credited this world we live in to a choice Riath made but maybe I am lying to myself.  Maybe I could have said no, even after her choice, but it would have amounted to nothing.  For all of the decisions I made, world shattering as they proved to be and the pain both I and others suffered as result everything is different but nothing has changed.  

Endymion has my daughter and he will always have her.  

It is the truth.

It is immutable.

And so shall it be.


End file.
